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xXl0sth0peXx
December 24th, 2011, 10:18 AM
PEABODY, Mass. — A woman who just flew back home from Las Vegas says an airport security officer confiscated her frosted cupcake because he thought the icing on it could be a security risk.

Rebecca Hains said the Transportation Security Administration agent at McCarran International Airport took her cupcake Wednesday, telling her its frosting was enough like a gel to violate TSA restrictions on allowing liquids and gels onto flights to prevent them from being used as explosives.

“I just thought this was terrible logic,” Hains said Friday.

Hains, who lives in Peabody, just north of Boston, said the agent didn’t seem concerned that the cupcake could actually be explosive, just that it fit some bureaucratic definition about what was prohibited. She said he even offered to let her eat it away from the airport security area.

Hains, a 35-year-old communications professor at Salem State University, said she told the agent she had passed through security at Boston’s Logan International Airport earlier in the week with two cupcakes packaged in jars, gifts from a student. But she said the agent told her that just meant TSA in Boston didn’t do its job.

The TSA, which is entrusted with protecting the nation’s transportation system, was reviewing the incident, agency spokesman Nico Melendez said. Passengers are allowed to take cakes and cupcakes through checkpoints, he said.

Hains ultimately surrendered the cupcake. But she said the encounter highlighted a lack of common sense by the agent and the ludicrousness of TSA policies.

“It’s not really about the cupcake; I can get another cupcake,” she said. “It’s about an encroachment on civil liberties. We’re just building up a resistance and tolerance to all these things they’re doing in the name of security, when it’s really theater. It is not keeping us safe.”

Source (http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/mass-woman-says-tsa-agent-in-vegas-confiscated-frosted-cupcake-as-possible-security-threat/2011/12/23/gIQAPLPTEP_story.html)

tbh, this is ridiculous. it's pretty funny i'll admit, but it's still stupid. a freaking cupcake. -eyeroll-

i actually know the lady who's cupcake got taken o:

Kaius
December 24th, 2011, 10:29 AM
Time to go and blow up Gatwick with the sauce and toppings on my pizza..

I understand they've gotta be careful about what goes in and out now but still :| wtf

Donkey
December 24th, 2011, 10:29 AM
My feeling is that if the guidelines are created then they should be stuck to. We can't blame the airport security staff, as that is how they are taught. And that is how the protocol should be. If you make one exception, before you know it, "it is just a disposable camera and a bottle of water". This really isn't article worthy and I think the staff here and the TSA went through the right protocol in sticking to their guidelines, whether or not those guidelines are OTT or not. It may seem bureaucratic but in this case I think it's fair.

Fiction
December 24th, 2011, 02:48 PM
I was at Boston Logan international airport this summer :P

Anyway...

Tbh I agree with Jon, that guidelines should be kept too no matter what the situation. But that frosted icing was probabaly solid and not liquid? In which case it's way over the top. I guess it's better than it not being over the top though. I've been let through airport security with liquids before. I only realised after airport security but it doesn't make you feel safe... you might not be trying to blow up the plane... but someone with the same amount of liquids as you might be.

Infidelitas
December 24th, 2011, 04:52 PM
So, cupcakes should be banned from an aeroplane?

THEY SOLD ME A CUPCAKE WITH ICING ON THE PLANE FOR FUCK SAKE

Jess
December 24th, 2011, 10:24 PM
to be honest I think this is going over the top. :/

antiabort
December 24th, 2011, 11:16 PM
There is nothing ridiculous about it, you would be surprised about the kind of shit you can make explosives with, trust me.

Stronger
December 29th, 2011, 01:52 PM
Wow, a cupcake of all things :eek: :confused:

Overcast
December 30th, 2011, 01:41 AM
ok i have a question here!!! now maybe its just me, but has anyone else realized that the cupcake was in a jar??? Personally i would find that a little suspicious myself, just to be realistic. I mean when I imagine cupcakes, I imagine them in maybe foil, or plastic wrap perhaps, but a jar? idk man...

Anyways I do feel as this might be going a little far anyways, I mean sure safety has standards, and I was asked to leave food behind in an airport as well, but perhaps it was for the better of everyone- I'm going to let this one slide past security, but knowing the TSA, some other news report will probably be out soon...

joshtheguitard
December 30th, 2011, 03:05 PM
I'll be sure to watch out for those cupcakes next time I fly anywhere. :lol:

Gandalf
December 31st, 2011, 11:20 AM
What stupidity,

Reminds me of this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NChuiwwpr6Q

ShatteredWings
December 31st, 2011, 11:30 AM
Example of agents not being allowed to use logic reason and common sense...
Wow.

Billy618
January 2nd, 2012, 05:34 PM
There is nothing ridiculous about it, you would be surprised about the kind of shit you can make explosives with, trust me.

yeah but not everyone is a genius and knows how to make a bomb out of a cupcake

WoShiDavid95
January 12th, 2012, 08:30 PM
I honestly don't think I can blame airport security, I mean you don't want to take any chances even if it is just a cupcake.