The TSA's Most Outrageous Finds of 2012

A bazooka, a cannonball, a rocket launcher...

The Transportation Security Administration had a good year, at least if "good year" is defined as scoring enough oddities to keep eBay busy for a lifetime.

Among Business Insider's "21 Craziest Things the TSA Found" in 2012 is a walking stick with a stun gun attached, a cannonball, and a deceptive grooming device known as a "lipstick knife" (you get the idea). Here are some of the other notable items confiscated by the Feds' airport centurions in the past year:

1. In December, a rocket launcher packed in a checked bag at Pittsburgh's Latrobe Airport.

2. In November, a wrist watch with "all the components [to make an] improvised explosives device" discovered at Oakland International Airport.

3. In July, a rusty machete confiscated at Denver International Airport.

4. In June, an old bazooka round picked up at the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport, which caused five flights to be delayed and a temporary evacuation of the baggage area.

5. In March, bags of marine animals including 163 tropical fish and eels handed over to the US Fish and Wildlife Service at Miami International Airport.

The TSA maintains a blog documenting its finds, which you can peruse here. Some of the pieces frankly belong in a museum, as a great archaeologist once said.

Via Business Insider.

Did the TSA do a decent job of securing airports in 2012?

[Zazziness]

I have zero idea if they did a good job or not because no one knows what was missed. I believe they tried to do a good job. (The fish are only one tiny part of the illegal exotic animal trade that goes on. Americans do love their contraband.)

[SavageMazx]

I was sitting in the Portland Airport at a nice bar, guy sits in the chair next to me and reaches in his pocket, smiles and says "Look at what I just made it thru screening with." He sets a 7.62 round on the bar, orders a shot and walks of leaving it there, I flagged the bartender down, pointed it out and told him there was a problem, he picked up the round, rolls it thru his fingers a few times and tosses it in the garbage. Always made me question how much of that stuff gets thru the watchful eyes of TSA.

[Zazziness]

@SavageMazx It seems to me any form of customs has always been that way. Contraband is *always* going to get through unless we dedicate half the population to constantly searching the other half. Customs (and TSA) does their best, I would hope, but that's no guarantee of safety or the end of smuggling.

[SavageMazx]

@Zazziness I have spent every week on the road for the last two years, I have seldom ever had an issue with TSA, my biggest complaint is that they are a typical government agency....slow to get things done and casually show a complete lack of common sense.

[martydotcom]

@SavageMazx up until 2011 I was flying 500k - 750k mi/yr you'd think they'd get an express pass system in place. They keep talking about biz travelers but do nothing

[Sabio]

sounds to me like they are trying to justify their funding for next year.

[Fishbone345]

Me too.

[PoliticalSpice]

Well if i'm part of the audience, they haven't justified it to me...

[jessejaymes]

Actually I didn't vote on this one because the issue is not whether they should be checking for things to ensure public safety but whether they need to be feeling the breasts of young girls or 80 year old women.

[truthsayer]

@jessejaymes Very good points along with squeezing of the disables catheter bags. At what point does protection out weigh common sense? Always it seems.

[Knightkore]

The TSA is one of the most oppressive government groups to come out of 9/11...it does more harm than good violationg the constitution...
For every "so-called" find...there is at least 2 or more instances of corruption and perversion...
A true police state entity the TSA is...

[PoliticalSpice]

Another waste of money by the government, plenty of guys would volunteer for free to feel womans breast.

[PoliticalSpice]

@truthsayer i think the tipping point was best expressed by ben franklin: those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither.

[truthsayer]

@PoliticalSpice I couldn't agree more fear or bigotry seem to be the only motivating factors the country has anymore. How smart was Franklin to recognize and warn us of the means to the end of freedom. To bad nobody or I should say so few have the courage the men of his time had.

[Fishbone345]

Yah, I'm sure that all of that would have made it onto planes without the magnificent intrusion of the TSA. No one would have seen it without their help.

[woodtick57]

So you
d willingly get on planes that had no screening of passengers or luggage at all?

[Fishbone345]

@woodtick57 I did for years before 2001.
Do you seriously think because of this organization terrorists have somehow ceased any and all actions towards planes? Are you one of those that think with their existence somehow 9/11 could have been avoided?
Well, you'd be wrong on both accounts. Never underestimate the determination of angry people seeking vengeance.

[stepped_in_it]

@Fishbone345 Funny thing about all this "security". A bullet proof, locked door would have stopped 9/11....the cockpit door!

[Dan_Tien]

It is hard to prove when security measures are successful, only the failures are really obvious.

[norezen]

Right. And every contraband item that every caused a problem passed right through their security screening anyways.
I think its too much of a hassle so I just don't fly. But I never leave a the east coast anyways so I have that luxury.

[norezen]

Oh yeah, so according to anti-gun people. Since there were armed security at Columbine and they didn't do anything, we should reduce armed security at schools. Just like since security at airports didn't catch the underwear or shoe bombers, we should just get rid of airport security too.

[Dan_Tien]

@norezen " In November, a wrist watch with "all the components [to make an] improvised explosives device" discovered at Oakland International Airport." Looks like at least one piece of contraband was intercepted by security screening that may have caused travelers the problem of being blown out of the sky.

[norezen]

@Dan_Tien When I was a lifeguard, i used to make things to go boom. Along the lines of mixing an acid and a base in a container.
I could easily get through inspection with it today.
When they first got paranoid about what you take on planes, I actually went through with some fireworks in my laptop bag, I had to volunteer them to the security guys.
They rockets I had on me were consumer quality, even if i had lit them off it wouldn't have hurt anyone (maybe a bruise or minor burn), but if they had been sticks of dynamite, they could have done some serious damage. But I walked right through security with them.

[norezen]

Turns out they were mustard gas bombs. After the last one. Well it was the last one for a reason.

[mimi57]

If this is a multiple choice question, I'd take my chances being attacked by the tropical fish...I mean how much damage can they do? Especially once they 're out of water. LOL

[woodtick57]

You haven't heard of the flying carp invasion in the center of your country?

[UnCommonBoston]

Tropical fish are not a threat to air travelers. Removing the fish from their coral reef homes is illegal, as is bringing them here. I don't care who catches the smugglers, just catch them

[Belin]

I had a problem a couple of years ago. My mother bought my little girl Crayola colored modeling clay. She proceeded to put it in my daughter's carry on backpack without telling us. We were stopped and questioned. I told the TSA agents what had happened and that they could just throw it away. They began to start taking it seriously until my little girl started crying about it getting thrown away and I had to promise to buy her more when we got home. Then they believed me and threw away the clay and let us proceed. What would have happened if she had not started crying about losing the toy?

[PoliticalSpice]

A lot of unnecessary questions when it could have easily been resolved by having a test kit and trained person to take a bit of the play dough put it in a chemical solution and determine if it is explosive. The problem with govt is they substitute stupidity for common sense. There are chemical test fir explosives, pull the person out of the line and test the substance. Instead they resort to harassment, largely annoying to you, and ineffective as well. What if they were explosives and you hadn't told the daugther and she started to cry anyway?

[woodtick57]

@PoliticalSpice You wanna pay for that?

[PoliticalSpice]

@woodtick57 people should pay a charge as part of their plane ticket, that way those who use the "service" pay for it.

[woodtick57]

What if half of it was explosives and half of it playdough? 50/50 chance of getting it through... or explosives wrapped in playdough. This is exactly why they don't allow things like that on the planes...@PoliticalSpice

[woodtick57]

Did the folks in the twin towers use that service?@PoliticalSpice

[Republican5001]

Small price to pay for the sake of convienence. Thank you TSA for doing the job no one wants to, for being the elephant in the room and keeping us safe from ourselves and those who want to hurt us.

[UnCommonBoston]

I agree. While we laugh at the TSA, they do keep us safe, not just from foreign terrorists but from home grown trouble as well. People have not changed. Crowds in the stands of jousting matches tended to get violent, so people were searched before the entered the stands --- hundreds of years ago and across the pond.

I am not sure if this is true, but I thought I read that in Israel, they use ethnic profiling to an almost extreme measure and have never had a problem with hijackers.

A friend is Persian on one side of his family, while the other side has been here since the Mayflower. He gets searched often at the commuter rail stations.

In the 1970's a family friend was the target of ethnic profiling. He was a big young guy, with a bushy beard, backpack and US Passport. He was born in Czech.-- which meant he could be trouble during the Cold War.

[KyleMFb]

The TSA is pointless so much "contraband" gets by its not even funny air port security is a joke government agents that test the affective of the TSA try to get caught and they don't

[RobertJHarsh]

As someone who travels extensively, I am glad they are there. Really I am. HOWEVER, I have ran into too many bad TSA agents and stupid passengers as well. For example,

1) When I get out of the body scanner, it says "ok" on the screen and they ask me if I am carrying a gun, that is stupid. 2) When you see a TSA agent roll his eyes when I or someone else springs the "computer selected me or someone else for an random extra search"...that shows a real dedicated man. 3) When the TSA agent refers to everyone as "civilian"....bad. 4) Finally...when the TSA merges the "TSA expert traveler line" and "worthless tourists who haven't traveled in 10 years line" into ONE line...quite bad. Not to mention when I see a half drank bottles of water, coke, and whatever else all along the line and those are supposed to be thrown because of a bomb threat, that is just stupid.

As for the passengers...1) explaining how to get a bomb through the line to others around you...not too smart. 2) a couple arguing in line...the TSA tends to not like that. 3) If you are a lesbian and have a ton of metal in your face just go through the body scanner...trust me...the TSA agent(s) are not interested in saving your naked image of 300 lbs self. You cannot get through the metal scanner. You are holding me and about 10,000 other passengers up. 4) Also females, you're not being raped. Just sayin.

...and finally to the so-called-ELDERLY. I say so called because we are up on your scam riding in wheelchairs to get a free pass through the TSA pre line an no check. Unless you can prove you are over 80...need to be in a wheelchair or your legs are like gone or your paralyzed...then you need to stand up and get scanned like the rest of us. Most of these "old people" are in the their late 50s to 60s and I see this EVERYTIME I fly.

BTW, none of this is at one airport...but everyone I have been through....now I feel better.

[artjeb]

I want to be a tsa inspector.

I have a tape measure to see how big some boobs are & then squeze them to find implanted devices. AHH what a job. another waist of time & paid by the government

[racemonkey]

The only good year for the TSA and the Department of Homeland Insecurity will be the year they shut them both down. Whoopee our on private Gestapo.

[MellowGuy]

TSA will allow you to take a parachute on if you're worried about something else being left onboard.

[texas_cutie75]

Rocket launcher....bazooka....fish... wow! Are these items going to go for auction like vehicles that law enforcement impound?

[ConserveUSA]

You all know better to carry stuff like that on an airplane. Shame on the Little Donkeys...(HE HAW!!!)

[1adam2]

their just another worthless joke, in finding everything that is a joke.

[kathyparsell]

Happy new year!

[Politicskid]

I don't think we should thank them; they got lucky.

I think we should privatize the TSA. They did it at San Fran Intel, and the officers there are much friendlier, faster, and have had no incidents. They're also cheaper.

[formerrepub]

All yes, another federal agency worthy of the chopping block! How about reasigning them to guardnig public schools, lots of stand around time there!!!