TSA: Man checked missile launcher in luggage at BWI
A service member returning from Kuwait said he wanted to keep the weapon as a souvenir. (TSA)
Well, not really a missile launcher, but an inert part of one. Still, this fellow isn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier for packing such a thing. From the article:
Federal officials say they’ve found a missile launcher in a man’s luggage at the airport in Baltimore.
The Transportation Security Administration said in a statement that the military grade weapon was located in the man’s checked luggage at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
TSA officers called airport police who found the man and detained him for questioning. The unidentified traveler said he was in the military and coming home from Kuwait. He said he wanted to keep the weapon as a souvenir.
The TSA said the missile launcher was “not a live device.” But it was handed over to the state fire marshal for disposal.
The man lives in Jacksonville, Texas, which is about 115 miles east of Dallas. He was ultimately allowed to catch his flight home.
Glad the TSA was able to protect the flying public from what essentially is an olive drab tube with scary military markings. One wonders how much cash he could have received if he was able to visit a gun buy-back program with the thing.
The entire aticle may be viewed here: Military Times
Category: "Teh Stoopid", Humor, Police
Didn’t someone I think in baltimore a year or so ago turned in an inert rocket launcher tube in a firearms buy back program and got a couple of hundred bucks???
YES, someone successfully did just that and it gives me ideas if there is ever a gun buyback in my neck of the woods which is unlikely because I live in deep Red State America!
I’m thinking about 50 bucks worth of 2” PVC, a rattlecan of OD and a couple yellow stripes could produce a substantial return on investment. Maybe even go all-out and stencil some random letters and numbers on the side.
Thanks for the photo. Now I know what to do to make a piece of plastic plumbing pipe into an inert rocket launcher, so that I can get some cash the next time the CPD has one of their buy-back offers. 🙂
Saw a guy get pulled aside during DEROS when they found a spent thumper case in his luggage.
And that was 1970.
Woulda made a nice……something.
AN inert piece of a rocket launcher in his luggage, does that designate him as a Rocket Surgeon in his spare time?
No way that thing, or he, could “operate.”
He prolly ain’t a brain scientist either.
Dumbass(es)!
This is the case of Police being stupid about the law. TSA obviously did a double take when they saw it, but realized it was inert and therefore legal. They had already notified the local police, and they apparently decided that “well, we are here I guess we have to do something…I guess we will have to confiscate the item…even though it is inert”
Could the “missile launcher” be reloaded to use as a weapon? No. So what was the point of confiscating it?
We can always count on TSA folks to be idiots. After all the TSA did hire Bernath for a spell, didn’t they?
Ironic that the TSA was created to make the skies safe for Americans, and then they hired Daniel Bernath.
When the word came out that the Marine BLT onboard the Okinawa during Op PowerPack were not going ashore, all the issued small arms ammo and other ordinance were piled on the fantail deck waiting to be thrown overboard so I grabbed two empty ammo boxes and kept them till we got back to Norfolk. I had a 72 and had the 2 cans in a bag and they were confiscated by the Marine Gate rats when I was leaving. The excuse was that it was Govt. Property. Didn’t the same thing apply to the thousands of $$$$$$$$’s worth of ordinance being dumped out at sea???
The military used to screen in Kuwait – apparently not anymore.
Screen? Navy customs folks used to crawl right up your ass to examine your tonsils.
You can actually bring back the above mentioned launcher body, fired artillery cartridge cases and other items. They must be demilled, i.e. a hole of a certain size drilled through the body, and they can only be shipped back in the unit containers. Additionally, it requires a memo and approval from your commander. The customs officials, while doing their pre-shipment inspection while inspect the item and memo for compliance. You cannot take those items on commercial flights as that falls under FAA and TSA rules. My unit shipped a number of similar items, mostly fired 105 cases, about a year and a half ago when we redeployed. No one had any issues at all.
Actually this individual was acting in accordance with all approved policies and had the paperwork on file to transport the items. I’m sure more info will come out in the coming days.
Its the poor guy running the X-Ray machine at the LSA that’s got some splaning to do.
But the story said it was “a military grade weapon.” You know, like an AR-15. Or maybe a Colt M1911A1. Or even a Colt 1860 Army revolver. Danger, Will Robinson!