BobHarris.com - Great moments in airport security

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Great moments in airport security

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Saturday, 18 February 2006

In Hawaii at the moment, at Kona on the big island.

Flying here, I actually saw this, I swear to you:

I was asked to step out of the security line for one of the "routine" and "random" screenings which I seem to get maybe a third of the time I fly. Maybe that's just bad luck. But here's some real incompetence:

A nice woman in her early 40s was asked to step out of the security line, too. The idiot woman patting her down went about her business, and then suddenly fixated on a small hard spot underneath the woman's shirt, maybe four inches below her left breast.

The security twit patted and poked this object several times, with an increasing look of concern on her face. This only took a second or two, and I only noticed because I was looking in that direction.

Finally, the screener asks: "Ma'am, what is this?"

"Oh, that? It's nothing" the lady says.

The screener now has her radar up. She's about to call for backup. "Ma'am, I need you to tell me what this is."

The lady pauses, looks the screener straight in the eye, and with a withering look I hope I never receive, delivered a full and complete explanation.

"That's my rib," she said.