Airport Insecurity

Last week I was fortunate enough to travel across the state for work. I left MCI Thursday afternoon for STL. Through what I thought was careful planning I thought I would have no problem sliding through security, little did I know I was packing a 'deadly weapon'. After a confusing search for economy parking and a bag check mess I finally made it to the security terminal. As luck would have it I got singled out for 'further inspection' and was brought over to the time warp table. The security 'official' went through my stuff VERY meticulously because I apparently tripped their keen nose for bad things with my 'deadly weapon'. After about 10 minutes of waiting the lady finally came back to me and said that I can't take my cigarette case on the plane because it has a lighter attached and is considered a 'deadly weapon' - even though it was completely inoperable. She told me that I could leave the gate area and mail it back to myself, but by that time the plane was leaving in 10 minutes and I sure as heck wasn't going to miss the flight. Goodbye vintage Ronson Mastercase (deadly weapon).

I left STL for MCI Friday evening after working all day. I got a ride to the airport (stopping at White Castle, of course), checked my bag, and waited in the most ridiculous security line - one security checkpoint for an ENTIRE terminal. Only when I'd already waited 30 minutes in line and finally gotten to the metal detectors did I realize that I'd left my Leatherman on my belt. I stood there for a minute mumbling curse words to myself before I decided to try to sneak it in. I took the Leatherman out of it's case and put it in a pocket in the laptop bag, took the laptop out and set it on top of the bag, put all my other stuff in the tub and sent it through. When I'd gotten through I kinda sat there for a minute waiting for sirens to go off and some big guy to grab my arm and escort me away. What really happened? Not a damn thing. It took me a minute to realize that I had actually snuck a Leatherman through security and was about to take it on the plane with me. I quickly picked up my stuff and made the flight back to MCI.

I was thankful that I wouldn't have to spend $80+ for a new Leatherman, but was still upset that they took my other 'deadly weapon'. The most silly part was that the cigarette case was completely harmless, but I could've taken over the plane with that Leatherman. I should've done it anyway just so I could chalk it up on the long list of things you can do with only a Leatherman.