Baby sharks, live smoke grenades and concealed knives: airport security reveals its top 10 catches
Travellers have tried to get some strange things past airport security in the last year if the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA)’s list of “top 10 catches” is anything to go by.
The list includes the weird, wonderful and downright dangerous items found and confiscated during luggage inspections in 2020.
One of the stand-out catches, in at number six, was a dead baby shark contained in a jar of liquid preservative.
The shark itself wasn’t a problem, according to agents, but “the chemical was deemed to be considered a hazardous material and as such, was not permitted to be carried through the checkpoint.”
Agents also found various prohibited items concealed in passengers’ luggage, including a book containing concealed knives, drugs hidden inside a shampoo bottle and a long-barrelled gun stashed in the lining of a suitcase.
Another strange entry, in at number five, was a homemade humidor for a traveller’s cigars – agents mistook the odd-looking contraption for a pipe bomb.
But TSA deemed the biggest “catch” of all as the two TSA canine handlers at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) who “caught each other” when they got married in June.
“On June 25, 2020, two TSA handlers professed their fur-ever love for each other! How dog-gone cute is that?” the TSA previously wrote of the couple’s nuptials in an Instagram post.
Top 10 catches
Married TSA dog handlers
Suspicious electronic device with the potential to explode
Long-barrelled gun hidden in the lining of a suitcase
Marijuana stashed in a shampoo bottle
Homemade humidor for a traveller’s cigars
Dead baby shark
Live smoke grenade
Roman candles (fireworks)
Book containing concealed knives
Slingshot
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