The TSA has spiraled out of control but it's no surprise that this latest problem is in Philadelphia. That has to be my least favorite airport in the world because of people like the ones in this story. In a notoriously unfriendly city (I spent twelve years there), they manage to find the least friendly, obnoxious people around to work at the airport.
Thanks to the atmosphere of fear, the TSA has been able to get away with anything, even if it violates the US Constitution. It's not going to be a surprise if another ACLU lawsuit comes out of this horrible incident. When the TSA response sounds not unlike the crazy helicopter gunner in Full Metal Jacket (they're all guilty) you know there's a problem. Everyone wants to be safe when flying but who wants to use the airlines with this attitude and harassment?
It hardly sounds like she was a threat in the air so why were they picking through her wallet and inspecting receipts and checks? How does that represent a threat to other passengers? What exactly is the mission statement of the TSA? The terrorists have clearly won.
That same screener started emptying her wallet. "He was taking out the receipts and looking at them," she said.
"I understand that TSA is tasked with strengthening national security but [it] surely does not need to know what I purchased at Kohl's or Wal-Mart," she wrote in her complaint, which she sent me last week.
She says she asked what he was looking for and he replied, "Razor blades." She wondered, "Wouldn't that have shown up on the metal detector?"
In a side pocket she had tucked a deposit slip and seven checks made out to her and her husband, worth about $8,000.
Her thought: "Oh, my God, this is none of his business."
Two Philadelphia police officers joined at least four TSA officers who had gathered around her. After conferring with the TSA screeners, one of the Philadelphia officers told her he was there because her checks were numbered sequentially, which she says they were not.
"It's an indication you've embezzled these checks," she says the police officer told her. He also told her she appeared nervous. She hadn't before that moment, she says.
