TSA Problems

After the 9/11 problems, I can see how security at airports is beefed up and how every once in a while you get pulled aside and searched randomly. But seriously, some of these guys take their jobs waaaaaay to seriously. Today, coming home from Portland, Heather got pulled aside for a random search. I didn't see this happen, because I was pushing our belongings we were carrying on to the x-ray belt. So, I stepped up to the metal detector.

Before continuing, lets rewind a bit. On Wednesday, I found that I was going to be short a shirt to wear on the plane on Friday. So, since Heather was on my trip with me, I sent her out to find a couple new polos for me, and I wore one of them on the plane today. So, now, head back to present day with me standing at the metal detector....

Normally, when I travel, I'm wearing an untucked tshirt. Today, I not only had my jeans and a polo, I had the polo tucked in. This left my belt exposed. Now, I've been on a few planes with this belt, and been through security many a time. In Sioux Falls, TSA isn't picky, especially if you don't set off the metal detector. So today, the TSA agent with me ready to walk through said that I should really take off my belt. I proceeded to tell him that since no other metal detector would pick it up, his wouldn't either. So, after I said that, I got to take off my belt, and as soon as I got though the metal detector, without setting it off, I was immediately put into the holding pen to be searched. I got my own two TSA agents to come and search me and my things, and completely swab my entire back pack. After they of course found nothing, I started looking around for Heather. I finally saw she was sitting at a different TSA agent station getting searched as well. When she came back, she said that she got pulled randomly, and then asked how I got pulled. I told her that apparently mouthing off to TSA personnel gets you into trouble. She just laughed and said that it must be our last name that automatically make them suspicious. Then I remembered all the years of flying on Uncle Paul's passes, and how I'd get searched every time because of the pass I was flying on. Then I remembered in Romania being searched by 3 different people before I got on the plane. I think I'm just cursed to always be a TSA/Security target.