14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to School

Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by ZachWick on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @12:29PM (#10227799)

This hits close to home for me too, and I am as WASP-y as it gets.

Just over a year ago I was flying to the middle of US with some prototypes for an agriculural automation system in my checked luggage. Going through DTW and O'Hare to my final destination was fine and went without incident. On my way back, again with a checked luggage bag of protypes and tools, this little airport in northwest IA got evacauted and I was very forcibly questioned about why I was flying with these things.

What struck me was that the larger airports (DTW and O'Hare) couldn't have cared less, but this 5-gate airport in IA freaked out that somebody flying with three laptops in his carryon would also have a bag of tools and equipment.

The best part out of all of this was after everything was cleared up, I asked the head TSA person what I should do in the future to prevent getting searched and interrogated. His answer was "just open your bag and show the luggage agent what is in it." I still don't understand how that would help - I envision that the conversation would go something like "Hi, these look like pipe bombs. They aren't. You can trust me." and I would immediately be detained.

(Edited for formatting)

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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by dx211 on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @12:49PM (#10227971)

When I got out of the Army in the 90's, I had to fly back to America, and since I didn't trust the government's shipping contractor I took all of the guts out of my PC, stuck them in a carry-on bag, and went through security with it. The guy at the counter looked inside the bag and asked what it was. I told him it was a computer and he let me through. Oh, such an age of innocence!

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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by leesalminen on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @12:40PM (#10227883)

At the age of 14, I had to fly solo from LGA to ORD for my uncle's funeral. I had a one-way ticket purchased 18 hours before the flight.

We all assumed that because of my age and appearance it wouldn't be suspicious.

Wrong! I was stopped and questioned for an hour before being allowed to board.

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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by ZachWick on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @12:44PM (#10227925)

I can only imagine the effect of an interrogation like that on a 14yr old. I was 24 and was completly drained by mine.

I was questioned by each of the TSA, the local sheriff, and the plane's pilot and an airline rep. Three different interrogations all asking the same questions just to determine if I was going to be allowed to fly.

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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by thwest on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @01:26PM (#10228270)

I also travel with custom imaging equipment that sometimes has exposed PCBs. My recommendation is to carry it on, so that you can open it and explain it. Twice I have approached the gate well ahead of my flight, and offered to show TSA the equipment. Both times they took only a cursory glance at it.

I'm surprised they don't just mandate the spectrogram swab on every piece of electronics that comes through, consumer or custom.

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Re:14-Year-Old Boy Arrested for Bringing Homemade Clock to S... by justanman on Wednesday September 16, 2015 @07:53PM (#10230770)

To be fair, your 'agriculural automation system' components likely could be used for an explosive device.

On the other hand, I once had an airport security agent delay me because I had a transparent purple Game Boy Color in my carry-on. He (an older Filipino gentleman) seemed genuinely confused about what it was. It was pre-9/11, coincidentally also in Texas.

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