A Little MisunderTSAnding … Bless Their HeartSSSS

You know those TSA agents, they’re just doing their jobs, bless their hearts.

Recently one of them pulled aside 777Deanna777 for a random screening at LAX and, well, here’s what happened in her own words:

I walked through and the security guy asked me to step aside. He said, “show me your hands.” I did. He got out a little white cloth that was something like 1 inch by 4 inches and swiped my hands (especially my left hand) methodically in 4 specific swipe directions. He said, “I want to see what you had for lunch.” (huh?). Then he put that piece of cloth into a slit in a machine and it was there for a few seconds and then brought it out to look at it.

So far everything sounds pretty normal. But then, as Wanderlust-For-2 so insightfully observes:

Our natural curiosity will try and reason as to the “why”…..when rarely a logical explanation exists.

Not knowing why she has been selected for screening, 777Deanna777’s mind starts to seek a logical explanation.

So- while this is going on I realized the reason he may be doing this. … Just before we left to the airport, I ran over to get a quick peek at Vallarta Sun Hotel. (so cute!). When I left, the desk guy buzzed the gate to un-lock and I grabbed the black rail and opened it and walked through. Thought nothing of it. Then I realized my left hand was really “sticky” … Oh dear! They must have painted that gate! I ran over to Playa Los Arcos Hotel and the front guys tried to scrub it off with soap and water and it would not work. They said, “follow me.” Took me over to Los Arcos Suites Hotel to an underground parking lot … they opened up a “locked door” and one guy went in to a big open barrel and poured some liquid onto a cloth. He came out of the room. They looked at each other and each started scrubbing my hand. Then the one guy said, “Don’t light a match!” hahaha.

So that’s why my hands set off the security at the airport. Interesting how such a little thing could be detected a few hours later…..

Bless her heart.

Most of the fellow travelers who post in the thread are very gentle as to their thoughts on 777Deanna777’s theory, if not quite as “southern” in their “kindness” as I have been.

Don’t understand what I’m talking about? Watch this video:

Read the thread in its entirety: My “hands” set off TSA pre-screening at security!

Image: “SSSS” by François Rejeté. CC BY 2.0.

Comments

  1. She was selected because it was random. Her hands didn’t set off the machine and even if they did, that has nothing to do with being selected. She was selected before she even got to the machine.

  2. One has to wonder if your name was Mohamed, and you have been living in the U.S. all your life, and never broken a law, that you would be treated with this dignity you speak of? …jussss sayin’

  3. ^right. I’ve had this done to me countless times. At MDW, I think they actually do it to everyone as you walk up to the security point (or at least they were the day I was flying home in May). I think it’s to test for residue from explosives or something, but I don’t know why I think that or who told me, so there’s my two cents. hah

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