Hell I forgot it was even attached to my backpack at all until I had guns pointed at me.
So... I drop off my grandmother at the airport, she's gone for three weeks or so. Im about to drive off after I wait for her to check in and she left for her gate.
A police officer steps in front of my car and draws his weapon. I put my hands up and ask to put the car in park, when he walks over to the car (still with his gun drawn) and says I can put it in park and to shut it off slowly. The guy has what looks like a nine millimeter less than an inch from my left ear.
I am then brought into the security area (and what I assume is the Homeland Sercurity area of the airport (a plain featureless room Ive never seen before) and am detained for FOUR HOURS.
Why? Because of the tube that I keep my playmat in for Magic
They WERE gonna keep it till I started in on that I was gonna get a lawyer cause owning PVC isnt against the law especially after theyd swiped down everything I had in the car and all my clothes with the q-tip things that show if youve been handling bomb making materials.
I think they gave it back just to shut me up.
Ill damn sure make sure that thing isnt in my car if I ever have to go there again O.o
Edited by Mechwarrior Buddah, 07 November 2014 - 06:44 PM.
Mechwarrior Buddah, on 16 October 2014 - 06:58 PM, said:
Hell I forgot it was even attached to my backpack at all until I had guns pointed at me.
So... I drop off my grandmother at the airport, she's gone for three weeks or so. Im about to drive off after I wait for her to check in and she left for her gate.
A police officer steps in front of my car and draws his weapon. I put my hands up and ask to put the car in park, when he walks over to the car (still with his gun drawn) and says I can put it in park and to shut it off slowly. The guy has what looks like a nine millimeter less than an inch from my left ear.
I am then brought into the security area (and what I assume is the Homeland Sercurity area of the airport (a plain featureless room Ive never seen before) and am detained for FOUR HOURS.
Why? Because of the tube that I keep my playmat in for Magic
That's one or two worse than trying to speak to your buddy jack in first class from the back of the plane.
Quote
They WERE gonna keep it till I started in on that I was gonna get a lawyer cause owning PVC isnt against the law especially after theyd swiped down everything I had in the car and all my clothes with the q-tip things that show if youve been handling bomb making materials.
I think they gave it back just to shut me up.
Ill damn sure make sure that thing isnt in my car if I ever have to go there again O.o
... yeah. Overboard. The instant they realized it was a tube for carrying your playing surface and nothing turned up in your car, they should have said "we're terribly sorry for the misunderstanding, here's your stuff, you can go, sorry for the inconvience." Sad to say, many officers these days aren't even ethical enough to bother with the idea that the punshiment should fit the crime, (the ever so HIGH ethical level of an eye for an eye, instead of a LIFE for an eye) and feel perfectly ok ruining people's lives over stupid misunderstandings. Just as bad are the legion of non-officer nitwits who don't know even the least basic things about morally upright policing who go out of their way to aggrivate police (dumb in the highest order).
With all officers, be polite, always ask them "Have I done something wrong?" before they can get word one out, and other wise ... SHUT UP. Always de-elevate the threat level if at all possible, rule number one is now "officer safety above ANYTHING else." If you're dealing with an immoral jerkwad officer, play the long game, not the short escalation game. They always win that game, even if you wind up dead for no good reason. Don't even do the "gimme your badge number, I'm gonna OWN your department" routine, even if you ARE going to own their department and they DESERVE IT. You ask for that stuff and they take TONS of notes in preperation.
As always, make sure to weigh the cost of not saying anything vs the possible end result. For myself, I have a simple maxim. If they need me to indict myself, than did they have a good reason to treat me like this in the first place?
There are worse things to have to fly with, though. For instance, radio-freqency bandpass/reject cavities. https://en.wikipedia...#Cavity_filters What's bad about that?
You can imagine the reaction these would get from your average T(non)SA employee. Things are fragile as all get out and the only way to get them open is to destroy them.
Mechwarrior Buddah, on 16 October 2014 - 06:58 PM, said:
Hell I forgot it was even attached to my backpack at all until I had guns pointed at me.
So... I drop off my grandmother at the airport, she's gone for three weeks or so. Im about to drive off after I wait for her to check in and she left for her gate.
A police officer steps in front of my car and draws his weapon. I put my hands up and ask to put the car in park, when he walks over to the car (still with his gun drawn) and says I can put it in park and to shut it off slowly. The guy has what looks like a nine millimeter less than an inch from my left ear.
I am then brought into the security area (and what I assume is the Homeland Sercurity area of the airport (a plain featureless room Ive never seen before) and am detained for FOUR HOURS.
Why? Because of the tube that I keep my playmat in for Magic
They WERE gonna keep it till I started in on that I was gonna get a lawyer cause owning PVC isnt against the law especially after theyd swiped down everything I had in the car and all my clothes with the q-tip things that show if youve been handling bomb making materials.
I think they gave it back just to shut me up.
Ill damn sure make sure that thing isnt in my car if I ever have to go there again O.o
yay murica, land of the free.
but seriously, how free are you in a land where every small pice of nothing is causing such a thing and you get treated like a criminal in first place.
StompingOnTanks, on 17 October 2014 - 01:29 PM, said:
And how many actual bombs has this stupid airport security stopped?
They have stopped every bomb that was ever attempted to be smuggled on an airplane. Except the shoe bomber. And the underwear bomber. But other than that, all zero other attempts failed due to their diligent work!
StompingOnTanks, on 17 October 2014 - 01:29 PM, said:
And how many actual bombs has this stupid airport security stopped?
We will never know. I honestly can't be surprised at what he claims to have happened in this case though. I'd actually be upset if he got out of there without some attention if what can objectively be described as a pipe bomb was sitting there in plain view. Probably didn't need to take 4 hours to figure out it was nothing though.
They have stopped every bomb that was ever attempted to be smuggled on an airplane. Except the shoe bomber. And the underwear bomber. But other than that, all zero other attempts failed due to their diligent work!
Spot On Perfect
sorry I couldnt resist XD
Bilbo, on 17 October 2014 - 02:02 PM, said:
We will never know. I honestly can't be surprised at what he claims to have happened in this case though. I'd actually be upset if he got out of there without some attention if what can objectively be described as a pipe bomb was sitting there in plain view. Probably didn't need to take 4 hours to figure out it was nothing though.
I think they were going through my background, swiping all the orifices of my car with their q-tips, and or "well this was him being stupid, maybe if we detain him a couple hours he'll learn the lesson"
I think I got off fairly light that they didnt try to swipe any of MY orifices O.o
Darth Futuza, on 17 October 2014 - 02:27 PM, said:
How does one do that exactly? Exaggeratedly making slow motion noises while turning they key slowly?
But shesh, no apologies, nothing?
Hands up, waiting till he was right by me then in a VERY calm voice "may I lower my right hand to put it in park and turn off the car?"
This is actually the second time Ive had an authority "officer" point a gun at me.
The last time was when I was in the delayed entry program for the Marines and we were going to an on base function at Concord Naval Weapons Station in CA. We literally had to follow one car and the idiot driving out car got lost.
We drove down a random road into a tunnel leading into a mountain, came out in what I think was a fallout shelter as it was like a really small group of buildings with nuclear signs all over them. There was another tunnel farther on, but in the middle of that, were two hummers pointing end to end blocking the road and three hedgehogs (the things that look like a 3d asterisk made from beams) in the road, pointing their topmounted .50 cals on us. We were "encouraged" to turn around and escorted back to where we were supposed to be (and this was pre-911).
careful, he might be in possesion of a sliver deck
but honestly, wonder why they did not chill after seeing it was a false alarm. someone who carries something vaguely resembling an explosive is not more likely to carry an actual explosive.
"his item looked like TNT. so he probably is hinting at us he is carrying some real TNT somewhere else."
unless the terrorist is the Riddler, this is not the case
Edited by kingalbertII, 02 November 2014 - 11:57 AM.
All I have to do in these situations is to identify myself.
The Honorable ......
It does deflate the situation really fast and was followed by I'm sorry. I evened look to see if there is a puddle by their feet after I identify myself.
Try flying into Miami with automatic weapons the Friday before the Superbowl. That was years ago. We were doing some work in South America at the time and were flying back to our duty station. I think all the person asked us was "military?" From that we were able to get into one of the frequent flyers clubs and a ride to the next plane.
Edited by Barkem Squirrel, 02 November 2014 - 12:28 PM.
You are living in a police state. America WAS a land of the free. Now you are ALL prisoners in your own land. And sadly there are so few who will recognise that you are already very much like the Soviet Union, iron curtain days, cold war. Just remember what it was like for the Russians and how they were demonised during the cold war.
The Russians are coming out of tyranny, we, "The West", look to be heading into it.
4
It's all good!
