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.
