THE TRUTH ABOUT: Stupid reasons tsa stopped people stories - The Untold Story

I use to work at an airport and went through security all the time. We had an employee line but it was the same deal. I would bring in bread and pb & J to save on lunches. I was once (not most the time I did it, only once) had TSA claim the peanut butter was a liquid and I couldn't bring it in. I was like open it up and turn it upside down, it doesn't come out.

Another time a pilot was ahead of me and had a small screwdriver set for his glasses or something. They tried to take it from him saying he could hurt someone. The pilot then screamed " I'm a pilot, if I wanted to hurt someone I'd take the plane down". It didn't get him his screwdrivers through. Sometimes they just want to be right about something, I've never seen anyone argue and win with TSA.

Amsterdam security confiscated our Nutella. “If you heat it hot enough, it's a liquid,” apparently. Like, sure, what am I going to do, liquefy it with my portable microwave?! My husband quipped, “If you heat me hot enough, I'll turn to liquid too.” He's still salty about it, 10 years later.

My humira.

I have a bag with an ice pack since I'm on humira to treat an auto immune disease.


Taking the caps off primes the injection. Each pen costs 500$ each. They uncapped all 8 of them.


I raised a stink. Because I couldn't travel without this and then my dr raised a stink when I called him for an emergency script.

They were even in a special bag made for TSA in mind with all the info.

My girlfriend had TSA precheck. I didn’t. So my girlfriend said she wanted to go through the regular line with me because I had just had an eye surgery and couldn’t see very well. We get to the check in desk and the two TSA agents at the gate see she has precheck but didn’t get in that line, and ask her why. She tells them she’s helping me because of my eyesight. They give her a precheck card anyway and tell me I can go with her.

So we get to the precheck line to go through the metal detectors and a woman in a wheelchair is in front of us and no one is checking the “precheck” line so we stand there for 10 minutes while all the people who were behind us in the regular line go through no problem.

TSA finally comes back to the pc line and asks why I don’t have a pass. I tell them. They tell me I have to go back and go through the body scan aisle without my girlfriend… ok, thanks for wasting my time.

Now we are passed the scanners where you put your shoes, and my stuff is already through the precheck lines X-rays. But I can’t put my shoes on that X-ray so I have to go back, put those on the other line, come back and go through the body scanner. I get out the other side and they have to pat me down because I have a continuous glucose monitor stapled on my arm, combined with my “suspicious behavior” of trying to go through precheck. Morons, you’re the ones that told me to do it!

I had a cpap with me. They wanted me to turn it on. I said fine but I needed to move it somewhere where I could plug it in. No, I needed to turn it on right there on the belt. I told them it needed to be plugged in. I was told that was impossible and I needed to turn it on instead. I said that it cannot be turned on without being plugged in as it runs on electricity. We went round and round on this for a good ten minutes.

I have a titanium plate holding my arm together after an accident. It shows up on metal detectors. I was pulled to the side. I showed an X-Ray. The SOB insisted on squeezing my arm very hard so he could feel the plate… which involved tearing healing muscle tissue over my gnarly surgical scar.

I was in more pain than usual for a couple of weeks thanks to that sadistic jerk.

Told me that my passport pic wasn’t me. It was very obviously me. I showed them my other photo IDs and they claimed those didn’t look like me either. Supervisor came over and said he agreed with the agent. I was like “okay” and just stood there. I had flown across the world using this same ID but I’m finally getting caught in Philly of all places. Then they just let me go through security anyway! So if they were convinced I was using a fake passport, I guess they just let on a potential terrorist because they couldn’t prove it either way. Morons. TSA is a huge waste of funding.

I got like four sarcastic answers in a row trying to figure out which line to join (pre-check or regular).

Both lines backed up past the regular start, so there was no signs clearly visible, but there was an agent nearby.

I asked casually which was pre-check, and he said "if you don't know what pre-check is, then you don't belong in that line".

When I clarified I knew *what* it was and just couldn't tell *which,* he said "you don't think it's the one that's probably moving faster?"

When I pointed out that neither was moving especially quickly, he said "Well I guess it doesn't really matter then, does it?"

When I asked if there was a separate area for pre-check at a different spot, he said "if there was, don't you think everyone would go there?"

Like guy I don't want VIP treatment, I just want to know what freaking line to stand in.

I had 14 stitches on my neck from a dog bite, nine on one side and five on the other. The TSA agent looked at me and said, “It’s time to take off your Halloween makeup,” then actually handed me an antibacterial wipe and tried to pull off one of the bandages. It was March. I don’t even know where to start.

I like to think I’m fairly quick on my feet, but my brain absolutely ground to a halt while she stared at me with the most misplaced smug expression I’ve ever seen. I slapped her hand away when she reached for my neck. Honestly, I think that reaction was a product of how completely offline my brain was because, obviously, that was not the ideal response. Anyway, she wigged out, and I got pulled out of line and dumped in a room for about an hour before the supervisor got there.

I'm not terribly proud of how I acted, but it was a less-than-an-hour domestic flight, and my grandmother was actively passing away in the hospital. By that point, she had already passed away, but I wasn't aware of it yet. The supervisor let me go and had someone drive me to the gate on a cart, so I made it with minutes to spare

Blood thinning injections with an original prescription and diagnostic letter. Still wouldn’t let me bring them on board… on a long haul leg of 26 hours of travel… where DVTs are known to happen. Make it make sense!

I had two laptops.

It took almost 3 hours before they could find anyone to tell them "I need a windows machine, AND a Mac because of my work" is actually a valid reason. And by then I had long since missed my flight.

We were traveling with a chocolate cake...
They must have figured I moulded it out of C4 or something because they x-rayed it twice, swabbed it, got a supervisor, etc.

Another later time I was flagged for explosives residue as I had my shot targets in my bag from the indoor range I had been at. That one I sorta get.

They decided my child's medication that has to be kept cold and has exemptions stamped on it, plus letters, along with the syringes were a problem and they tried to separate him from me... Taking him into a windowless room.... Papa bear came out big time on that one.
Agent actually tossed the ice pack in the trash (one of those long duration gel type ones specifically for medication and related). I not only refused to accept it back (I had a spare in checked so only really needed ice for the flight) as it was now contaminated, I sent a bill to the TSA to replace it. I also made an unholy swearword filled stink in the middle of security about the general low intellectual abilities of the agent that tossed it to the supervisor. Honestly shocked I made my flight. As a cherry on top: we're all TSA Pre... So it's supposed to be smoother.

Actual border agent. My uncle and father have almost comically common last names. Last time they visited the US they were stopped and held because there was a warrant for someone with my uncle’s name. Only problem, my uncle was nine inches shorter and thirty years older than the suspect.

I traveled a lot and did government work. The rule was that you were never to have your laptop out of your sight - not even for 1 second they told us.

So here I am (Milwaukee Airport / Mitchell) - shoes off, belt off and they had me take my shirt off (staples in my lung from an operation) and I was trying to keep an eye on my laptop. 'MOVE ON SIR' they kept repeating and I kept saying that I had to keep an eye on my laptop.

Oh yeah, holding up my no belt pants, with no shirt (in winter), no shoes and they're trying to get me to break a strict GOVERNMENT rule.

About a month later a co-worker followed their orders and her laptop was grabbed by someone else in a hurry (a standard issue HP) and she was almost fired because of TSA even though TSA tracked the laptop and stopped the passenger before they boarded another airplane.

Nashville TSA can eat dirt. Worst one in the U.S. They're power-tripping morons.

I got threatened for anticipating their nonsense and printing out their own policy stating that frozen food was allowed in carry-ons.

Then they made me throw away $50 worth of frozen cheese and country ham, saying they were liquids/gels. I'm still salty about it because, unlike them, I have a strong grasp of the states of matter and can tell the difference between liquids and solids.

They said my shirt was a jacket. I kept telling her it was a blouse and all I had was a bra underneath and wasn’t going to take it off. After this exchange 4 times she finally let me through.

I was in an airport what was known for TSA that do things to their own discretion/mood. I had a small beautiful palm sized geode rock (size of a small apple) that is carry-on compliant. But the TSA lady said it could be used as a weapon so she took it away.

I’m sure it’s up in her living room somewhere. I got it in California and carried it across the world with me. First time I have gotten emotional over a rock, I’m still get upset when I think about it. it was blue and glittery when the light hit it right and made me so happy. But I know if I caused a stink I would’ve missed my flight and they would’ve made my life hell.

I had two lipsticks. They were exactly the same, except one was red and one was pink. They were the traditional twist kind and well below the 3.4oz rule and not even liquid. They said I could keep one of them. One. I had to throw the other one away. It was so dumb. They didn't care which one I kept as long as I threw the other one out.

TSA is so frustrating about so many things. My family travels a lot, and I can't count how many times my wife has gotten secondary searches and been swabbed with explosives-detection wipes because she had milk for our babies. Like, yeah, some people flying first class with a newborn are secretly sneaking in explosive liquid that looks exactly like milk in a bottle.

Another time, I had lost a lot of weight but hadn't bought new pants yet. I walked into the scanner and raised my hands, which caused my pants to fall down a little. The TSA agent immediately got mad and, with an attitude, told me, “Sir, raise your pants!” So I held my pants up. Then he yelled, “Raise your hands!” So I did, which caused my pants to fall back down about two inches again. Then he near screamed, “I SAID PULL YOUR PANTS UP!”

"So I finally looked at him and got mad right back and said, “I lost a lot of weight, and y'all make me take my belt off. So either my hands are raised or I hold my pants up. You can't have it both ways. Make a choice.”

Several years back, I was flying with an orthopedic boot because I had broken my foot a few weeks earlier. Nashville TSA was yelling at me and flipping out about it the entire time. I got yelled at for asking to sit down while I took the boot off, yelled at for holding up the line because I needed to take it off, yelled at while it was off because they wanted to know why I needed it in the first place, yelled at to stop lying when I said I had broken my foot, and then yelled at one final time for holding up the line while I put it back on. Meanwhile, they were sending the boot itself through the scanner multiple times.