Yesterday, my eighty something year old grandmother and aunt left Milwaukee to come visit my family here in NC. After, they checked their luggage in and were proceeding through security, TSA pulled them both to a secondary checkpoint away from the other passengers and pulled out one of their suitcases and laid it on a counter. It was at this point, other armed agents and men in suits gathered around. One of the agents then asked in a challenging manner, who the owner was of the suitcase on the counter. My grandmother stated that it was hers. They asked if she had packed the suitcase herself and she answered that she had. They then asked if she had stored any weapons in the suitcase. My grandmother stunned, answered, "Well NO, I haven't." My aunt then chimed in, "What is it? Is it scissors?" (She once had scissors taken away from her on another flight.) The TSA agent said, "No, Its a GUN!" My grandmother and aunt were dumbfounded. Mind you, this was yesterday, moments after the U.S. intercepted those two UAE airplanes that contained explosives bound for Minnesota. Tensions were already heightened. TSA agents showed them the scanned image of the suitcase. It was true, there was a small pistol there. One of the agents said it was probably a Dillinger. My grandmother and aunt were still in shock, and this incident was now causing quite a commotion. They still had no answers.
The agents opened the suitcase and began to carefully remove clothing items. When they got to the compartment where the gun was, they opened it up and slowly pulled the gun out. When my grandmother saw the gun, her hands went to her mouth. She NOW remembered the gun and how it got there. It was a TOY gun and her grandchild (my cousin) had been playing with it about three years ago while my grandmother was packing an overnight bag. My cousin slipped the gun in her bag so "Grandma could take gun" with her. My grandmother had simply forgotten about it. This commotion lasted 45 minutes and when they were finally released, one of they agents said, "OK Annie Oakley, don't you cause any more trouble today!" Needless to say, they didn't get the toy gun back.
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