TSA agents at PDX: 'The comb pulled apart to reveal a dagger'
PORTLAND, Ore. – TSA agents at our nation’s airports are trained to spot objects that could be used as a weapons. Sometimes those weapons come in unusual forms.
Take the hidden dagger spotted by a body scanner at Portland International Airport on August 15. According to a post on the TSA’s blog, the scanner alarm went off when a passenger passed through.
Agents then patted down the man and found what looked like a common plastic comb.
“No big deal, right?” the TSA wrote. “Wrong. After closer inspection it was learned that the comb pulled apart to reveal a dagger.”
TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said the man was cited for carrying a concealed weapon. He had been trying to catch an Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle.
Consider some of the other prohibited items confiscated last week at airports around the country:
- Four belt-buckle knives, including one at PDX. The others were at San Jose, Seattle and Las Vegas
- Three 7-inch throwing knives in Honolulu
- An 18-inch sword concealed in a walking cane in Las Vegas
- Inert grenades or detonators in Huntsville, Vegas and Denver (The Vegas agents were busy)
- 30 undeclared guns at airports around the country. 28 of them were loaded.
Kodiak is not just "sort of a jerk", but a real jerk of the first order.
 Hey TSA you just violated the rights of millions of Americans and confiscated this very dangerous knife what are you going to do now? Umm go to Disneyland.
The TSA is a joke. I just recently flew from Austin to Seattle. I hadn't flown in a while and I'm sort of a jerk so I thought I'd screw with them a little bit. I put 3 live rounds of 40 cal. ammo, one can of police issue pepperspray and a large bottle of Ax bodie wash in my carry on. I got the whole x-ray and pat down, but my contraband still made it on the flight. Anyone that thinks these guys are actually protecting them are both cowards and fools!!!!Â
 @Kodiak "The TSA is a joke."
And yet you don't comment on this dagger and the implied threat it carries?
And then are fool enough to claim that you have intentionally violated the law...What would you have said if they HAD found it and questioned you on it? "Oops, my bad!"?
Orcas Thunder Did I break the law? yes I sure did, but at least I had the balls to do it and show that the law is nothing more than a treasonous invasion of privacy and nothing more.   If you like being x-rayed then felt up which is a bunch of redundant crap go ahead,. Myself and many others would prefer to have airport security go back the way it was. Go back to your computer room and cower in the comfort of the four walls that surround you.Â
 @Kodiak Well, clearly I have no reason to feel relaxed at the airport with all you guys with big balls breaking the law just so you can brag about it.
Frankly, I see that as evidence of a overinflated ego - but you might want to check with your physician in case it's the onset of Macroorchidism...or even worse, fragile X syndrome.
I have been meaning to buy a comb brush like that for myself, or one like it. That said, there is such a thing as common sense when boarding a plane, meaning not bringing these items with them on a flight. Granted, there should be a system for people who have licenses for guns to carry them on a flight or people filling out paperwork and having a background check ahead of time to allow them to carry knives or other protections, but that's not something the TSA really cares about.
They forgot to mention the 625,000 nail clippers.
Including 420,000 tubes of Crest Toothpaste.
@SG1 Yeah isn't that about the truth. I'm not sure in the history of man that even someone in prison has fashioned a nail clipper or a tube of Crest into a deadly weapon. What joke.
And not one of those people had any intention of hijacking a flight. They were ordinary citizens. I bought one of those combs for a young girl I know who has to traverse a dark parking lot every night after work. Some of those carrying guns were actually police officers. The real problem in this country is our immigration policies. And those of you that think that Islam is a peace loving religion....well, you're not too bright are you?
 @bagsofdirt May I direct your attention to the following: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades
Â
It's not the religion that is the problem, it is a subset of humans in general.
 @wsmith_84  @bagsofdirt Crusades were fought hundreds of years ago. We are not fighting crusades anymore. Stop burying your head in the sand
 @NickM1979  @wsmith_84  @bagsofdirt My comment was referencing @bagsofdirt 's inference that Christianity was a religion of peace.  The Crusades are just a smattering of the untold millions who have died under the auspicies of "Christianity".  Google "Spanish Inquisition" for another high profile incident.
Â
No, we are not fighting the Crusades anymore, but there are people in the world that are still mightily pissed off about them and bear a long, long grudge.
 @NickM1979  @wsmith_84  @bagsofdirtÂ
"We are not fighting crusades anymore."
Â
We're not?
Reading bagsofdirt's comment, it seems that some still are.
 @wsmith_84  @bagsofdirt ...and it only takes one rampaging medieval knight to bring down a plane once he gallops past security. Those guys can do alot of damage when they're in full armor.
The TSA has to show items like this once in a while so that we might be manipulated into believing that they are protecting the country, and so they can molest us while we push through the line at security checkpoints like a bunch of bleating sheep.
Â
I'm guess most of the items picture here were not intentionally brought through security, or that they were never meant to be used in any nefarious plot. I twice forgot that I had my Swiss Army knife in my carry on bag. The first time, in Argentina, I had enough time to go back into the airport, and mail it to my destination (after a kind store owner gave me a box, pen, and I was able to buy postage in the airport). The second time, in the US, there was no shipping it forward. I don't own a gun, but I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority of guns confiscated are the result of someone forgetting that it was even in their travel bag to begin with.
Â
At any rate, this story does not in any way change my mind on the TSA and their security theater.
30 undeclared guns.... with two of them unloaded... Obviously there are a couple idiots out there who will carry unloaded guns... and a few more that will try and go through a security checkpoint with a gun... If my memory serves me correct, a while ago, someone used a bag that was also used as a range bag, and didn't check it to make sure it was empty.. (so the story goes)
A comb knife... that is a good find.. it is nice to know that the TSA agents are doing a good job.
Â
Â
Really. What was once unknown. is not now known. These type of weapons have been there all along, we just didn't know it . Good/bad. Nice to know that they are are being found. Too bad a few grams of pot are also being found. Makes you feel bad for the little guy not meaning to harm anyone.
Maybe he just wanted to give someone a haircut. ;-)
Agree with the idea of not publishing it.  Just  lets them know what to try next time.
 @Henry Joseph Parle Sr. Anybody that has serious intent to do something bad doesn't need any ideas, especially from amateurs/idiots like this that the TSA catches.
I wish they wouldn't publish this stuff. It gives the bad guys ideas.
 @ObsidianOne Anybody that has serious intent to do something bad doesn't need any ideas, especially from amateurs/idiots like this that the TSA catches.