TSA OUTRAGE: An infuriating search at Philadelphia International Airport

[Thor]

By Daniel Rubin

At what point does an airport search step over the line?

How about when they start going through your checks, and the police call your husband, suspicious you were clearing out the bank account?

That's the complaint leveled by Kathy Parker, a 43-year-old Elkton, Md., woman, who was flying out of Philadelphia International Airport on Aug. 8.

She says she was heading to Charlotte, N.C., for work that Sunday night - she's a business support manager for a large bank - and was selected for a more in-depth search after she passed through the metal detectors at Gate B around 5:15 p.m.

A female Transportation Security Administration officer wanded her and patted her down, she says. Then she was walked over to where other TSA officers were searching her bags.

"Everything in my purse was out, including my wallet and my checkbook. I had two prescriptions in there. One was diet pills. This was embarrassing. A TSA officer said, 'Hey, I've always been curious about these. Do they work?'

"I was just so taken aback, I said, 'Yeah.' "

What happened next, she says, was more than embarrassing. It was infuriating.

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.

It gets worse

And people still fly and put up with these constant breeches of their civil rights?? NOT ME!!

[Ptarmigan]

It's ****ing insane. 

[RightCoast]

I refuse to fly, it's starting to drive mrs RC crazy because she wants to go on vaca - so far we've driven all of them, but with gas prices jumping I might have a tough time staying on the ground this fall.

[true_blood]

Too bad this woman wasn't wearing a burka, she would have been rushed right through. After all, the DHS security is only thinking of our safety.
 

[Thor]

There's the answer. We ALL wear "burkahs".....  them.... 

[RightCoast]

There's the answer. We ALL wear "burkahs".....  them.... 

White American's wearing burkahs = hate crime

[NHSparky]

TSA agent puts "white powder" in a person's carryon and then says, "This yours?"

TSA agent busted for kiddie porn last week.

TSA agents going through receipts on a purse.

All of these have a single common theme--PHILLY.  Think there's a problem with the management there as well?  So what have we learned?  Avoid Philly like the plague--worse than the other places.

[Rebel]

Philly is a shithole.

[vesta111]

Philly is a shithole.

Get ready folks it will get worse, no such thing as getting better.   

Hire someone with low self esteem and give them the Rights to run rough shod over anyone they please and here is what you get.

They called her husband to report she had checks to deposit, WTF, their excuse was they wanted to know if she was involved in a divorce dispute.  When does the law get involved in this kind of thinking, if she was in fact hiding money from her husband this is not illegal, this is a Civil divorce problem, and none of their business. 

It gets worse and worse, the new guide lines ask a man wishing a passport to reveal if he has been circumcised.   

Would they have, the  TSA have called her to report her husband was carrying check to deposit ?????????

The insanity and human rights under our Law of the Land is getting to a breaking point,  This country that I love is now one hell of a throw back to the reason people came here to escape the crazy Laws of their original home land.

Before you know it, citizens will be headed for Cuba for a less restricted life.

Charlie get out the inner tubes and all the plastic bottles with caps we have collected.   We going to build us a raft and head out to live in a country that Will not demand you show someone your Willey to get a passport to go on vacation and I can travel freely without someone calling you to ask if you know about my travel plans and worry that I may be divorcing you.

This kind of reminds me of the Hotel detectives in the early 50's that would go snooping to see if a customer and a lady were married.   

[Texacon]

The problem lies with the people allowing it to happen.  If I get pulled over and a cop asks to search my car I tell them "No".  If it delays me then it delays me but they are not going to search my car.

The problem at the airport is you evidently don't have the choice.  Either you let them search or they arrest you if you try to leave.  This is wrong on many levels.

KC