Because the key pops out with the push of a button, it’s considered a weapon.
Put Down Your Key And No One Will Be Hurt @ Transportation Facilities Columns SecurityInfoWatch.com — This story which begins by praising the TSA in Minneapolis seems to prove that in Texas people are dumber than dumb or just a-holes unless they cannot really tell a car key from a switch blade knife. Are they really that stupid? The supervisor should be fired immediately.
How much longer do we have to tolerate this bullshit?
At the Dallas checkpoint, the contents of his bag were dumped on the table. ”They pull out my car key,” he said.
”What’s this?” an inspector asked.
”My car key,” Mr. Rau said.
Mr. Rau drives an Audi. Audis now come with stylish ignition keys designed to house the key inside a holder, preventing rips and wear on pocket liners. You push a button on a flat two-inch shaft and the key slides out.
As he demonstrated it, Mr. Rau could see the word forming in the minds of the screeners, now three, on his case: switchblade.
”Now the bells are ringing,” he said. After running the key through the X-ray machine three times, the security committee reached a conclusion. ”Well, sir, that’s a switchblade style, and that’s a prohibited item,” Mr. Rau said he was told. ”We’re going to have to confiscate that.”
It cost $300 to replace the key.
an under-reported insult to the public-at-large found by C. Gregg
Here in Portugal we usually say that cars are a deadly weapon, and that a driver’s permit is a license to carry arms. So this is just the next logical extension of that… 🙂
Is this really true or just an urban legend?
Makes me want to get one of those “switch-blade style” comb, for the next time I’m going through the security checks. 🙂
Seriously though, a lot of TSA employees around the country are probably bracing for the crap they are going to receive from people, because of what those morons at DFW did.
Reminds me of growing-up with my Dad being a cop, and my Mom always worried that someone would vent their frustration/anger – at what some other cop(s) did – on my Dad.
This isn’t exactly new. I remember back in the early 90s when a TINY set of fingernai clippers were confiscated from me whiel entering a Public Enemy show.
I’ll say now what I said then, IF I could kill someone with a tiny set of fingernail clippers (or a two inch car key), I certain could kill withOUT it!
After my last “you’ve been selected for the “extra-good” security search”..i realized that the people searching me were morons, and they were humorless and rude, too! Give a little person a little authority…and you create a monster.
The worst part is these screeners all seem to want to out-do the next. I was careful to not bring my 2 inch long swiss army knife, but, they did look long and hard at my nail clippers. You cannot knit or bring knitting on a flight anymore, and even a small pair of sewing sissors (the small manicure kind) are taken. It’s mindless stupidity.
Plus, for the airport to TAKE things, but not allow you to A.) mail it to yourself…they could EASILY have a mail/packaging kiosk nearby, and offer that option, or to B.) allow you some way to recover that object, even if at the other end of the flight…..or when you returned to the airport, something……it makes no sense. It seems to me to be unreasonable search and seizure. Then, to add insult to injury…a lot of airports are selling the lots on EBAY!!!
How much pushing us, before we get mad? I’m starting to wonder.
Miguel, it’s ALL believable. It happens every day. I have one friend who is Canadian-born with dual US citizenship for over 40 years. It’s not unusual for her to travel by air a few times a year.
Unless she’s traveling on a roundtrip ticket, however, she knows she’s guaranteed the bullshit and embarrassment of a strip search. The presumption being there’s no reason other than terrorism for a 60-year-old medical professional born in Canada to buy a one-way ticket. A week or so ago, she went through the same crap — without even trying to get on a plane — because she persisted in delivering her granddaughter all the way to the plane.
And, Mike — sadly, even a bad cop has had better training than the dorks in this delightful new branch of the federal dole.
Nah, probably the guy deserved it. If he could buy an Audi then the 300$ car key replacement means nothing.
On the other hand, it’s not the screeners fault after all; blame the administrators who hired the cheapest, uneducated employees they could get in order to get fat bonuses.
Where’s the followup? Was his car in the parking lot when he got back?
Those guys have a tendency to steal everything.
These are YOUR representatives, YOUR workers, Mr Dvorak (and anyone else reading this who is an American Citizen), and the only way to stop this insanity is to …
Think about the mechanisms of government. I don’t really think we’ll ever see an airplane fly into a skyscraper. The airline involved would be at total risk. Or would they? Is one of the reasons that you just about can’t get terrorism insurance that the airlines didn’t pay a thing for their role in that terrible event?
Weren’t they at fault? If it had gotten to a courtroom there would have been no doubt. But we – the American citizens alive at the time – thought that they should get off scott free. Why? Because we didn’t think about it, we have no idea of how the law of torts works, and because it seemed like a nice thing to do.
“–“
Years ago in Thailand (before 9/11), I had to take an in-country flight. My Leatherman was in my bag, as I’ve ended up needing it on every vacation out of country. The plane was very small, so I don’t think there was a cargo hold. Anyway, the security people see all the nasties in the Leatherman, and ask me to take it out of my bag. They then put it in a baggie, staple a special tag on it, and hand it to the pilot. I got it back soon after I landed.
How hard is that?
Why should the airlines have to pay up, when the government was running security. They even fine airlines if they search too many Arabs/Muslims prior to boarding. Even the insurance companies shouldn’t have had to pay up, because they had a clause in the contracts that excluded acts of war, but they got pushed into paying anyways. The only good out of that is that the guy with the WTC lease is blocking tyhe stupid redesigns they’ve come up with.
TSA employees are only 1 step above McDonald’s employees.
Don’t you think you’re being a bit harsh on McDonald’s employees?
Quite frankly, a pen or pencil would be more dangerous than that key and to expand on what Ima Fish said, are they going to require people who know deadly martial arts to have pre-flight lobotomy’s as they could do more damage with their own appendages than anyone else could do with that key. Does the level of human intelligence have no floor?
Whether it is a retractable car key, a pair of nail clippers, or a sharp pencil is irrelevant. For some reason the “security” people think this is a prudent thing to do. It doesn’t matter that a determined terrorist would find another method, it doesn’t matter that the borders allow anyone to cross, it doesn’t matter that only 5% of shipping containers are currently searched in the nation’s ports, and it doesn’t matter that rail road traffic is completely defenseless.
As long as Dubya’s lackeys appear to be doing something, no matter how silly, their political base is pleased. Because it takes everyone’s attention off of the economy, the war in Iraq, and the shenanigans of the right wing nuts.
If you think it is silly that they would take away a car key, then call your Congressman and Senator and let them know. If you are upset that the borders are wide open or that illegal immigration is rampant then let them know. Change will not happen through sublimation, we have to make our voices louder then the lobbyists and wing nuts.
Einstein once said something like ‘There are limits to human knowledge, but no limits to human stupidity’…
Audi of America offered to reimburse him for the cost of the new key. Meanwhile, TSA PR shamelessly claimed the incident never happened. If this is true (not “officially” reported), the TSA officers are thieves and should have been fired. I do have to say I have been through DFW and never had any problems with my Audi keys or with the courtesy of the officers checking me. But, then again, I didn’t have to suffer these particular vindictive jerks.