TSA confiscates cupcake

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Another ridiculous episode in the sad saga that is called airport security.

Frightening frosting? TSA confiscates cupcake

By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news services

PEABODY, Mass. -- An airport security officer confiscated a frosted cupcake amid fears its icing could be a security risk, according to reports.

Rebecca Hains said the Transportation Security Administration agent at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas took her cupcake Wednesday. According to Hains, he told 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 said the agent didn't seem concerned that the red velvet cupcake, which was packaged in an 8-ounce mason jar, could actually be explosive, just that it fit some bureaucratic definition about what was prohibited.

"Once he had identified it as a security threat it was no longer mine and I couldn't have it back," Hains told NBC station WHDH.

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 officials in Boston didn't do its job.

"The TSA agent who saw them, picked them up and said, 'these look delicious,' and sent me on my way," Hains told WHDH.

'Civil liberties'

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, who lives in Peabody, just north of Boston, said the encounter highlighted the ludicrousness of TSA policies.

"It's not really about the cupcake; I can get another cupcake," she added. "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."

The Associated Press, NBC News station WHDH and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

[Nagishkaw 510]

[Danno 1,228]

It could be that they are aware that very clever means are being developed to bring certain combustible materials onboard, perhaps several passengers each bringing one element of the mixture.

If in fact they have knowledge of this, how can they not be very thorough in seeking these possibilities?

If a 747 were to go down over Cincinnati by this means we would all be blaming the TSA for not acting on this knowledge.

I think the greater scrutiny should be aimed at the passengers that have fit a consistent profile.

White haired granny with cup cakes should not get the same attention as a 22 yr old w/ cupcakes named Muhammad here on a student visa.

[Pooky 3,786]

If the cupcake was from a supermarket around here, I'd be scared of the frosting, too

[Rebecca616 38]

Why didnt they ask the girl to take a bite of it? If she wont then hey maybe you have something there. " White haired granny with cup cakes should not get the same attention as a 22 yr old w/ cupcakes named Muhammad here on a student visa."............ whats good for the goose is good for the gander. I wouldnt expect to be treated any differently than anybody else if i was holding a cupcake or anything else for that matter.

[Danno 1,228]

and don't go near the yogurt!

Clerk put semen in sample given to woman

SEPTEMBER 29--The New Mexico supermarket employee busted for giving a female shopper a yogurt sample tainted with his semen will plead guilty to federal charges stemming from the repulsive incident, according to court records.

Anthony Garcia, 32, is scheduled to appear next Thursday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque for a change of plea hearing before a federal magistrate. In mid-July, Garcia was named in a two-count felony indictment charging him with adulterating food and lying to federal investigators.

Garcia, pictured in the above mug shot, pleaded not guilty to both counts at his July 15 arraignment. He is being held without bail, and faces a maximum of five years in prison on the false statements count and a maximum of three years for adulterating the yogurt. Garcia’s lawyer, John Van Butcher, declined to discuss details of his client’s plea agreement in advance of the October 6 court appearance.

As detailed in an Albuquerque Police Department report, the female victim, 29, told cops that she was shopping with her daughter at the Sunflower Farmers Market on January 25 when a “pushy” Garcia approached her offering the yogurt sample. After ingesting the yogurt, the woman immediately thought the sample tasted “gross and disgusting.” And, as police reported, she “said it tasted like ‘semen.’”

In a handwritten statement, the woman recalled, “I spit it out on the floor many times cuz I was upset.” She also recalled that a supermarket manager told her the sample "was a Greek yoghurt. People love it has lot of protein on it.”

Along with his criminal case, Garcia has been sued by three women, including the victim in the January incident, for allegedly providing them with semen-tainted food samples. Each of the personal injury complaints names Sunflower Markets, a 40-store chain, as a codefendant.

Earlier this month, the woman who originally reported the yogurt tainting to cops sued Garcia, Sunflower Markets, and the natural food firm’s founder, Michael Gilliland, in Santa Fe District Court. She is listed as “Jane Doe” in court records. (5 pages)

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/revolting/guilty-plea-in-yogurt-semen-case-867593

[Amby 490]

Speaking of TSA, I got body scanned 3 times in one day on Tuesday! I guess my messy hair was a threat.

Eta: it was at 3 different airports in 3 different countries

Edited December 24, 2011 by Amby

[Danno 1,228]

Speaking of TSA, I got body scanned 3 times in one day on Tuesday! I guess my messy hair was a threat.

Eta: it was at 3 different airports in 3 different countries

Take it as a compliment.... it might be your body was worth looking at so closely.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

TSA Confiscates Cupcake Because of Frosting

http://www.care2.com...f-frosting.html

• by Kristina Chew
• December 24, 2011
• 2:34 pm

It's the season for holiday traveling by train, bus and airplane — meaning that, it's also the season for a story about an incident involving TSA. MSNBC reports that a cupcake (red velvet, packed in an 8-ounce mason jar) was confiscated by a TSA agent at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas from Rebecca Hains, a 35-year-old communications professor at Salem State University in Massachusetts, on the grounds that its frosting looked "enough like a gel to violate TSA restrictions on allowing liquids and gels onto flights to prevent them from being used as explosives."

The cupcake and another one like it, also packed in a Mason jar, had passed through security at Logan International Airport in Boston earlier in the week. Hains informed the Las Vegas agent about the cupcake having cleared security earlier, but was told that the Boston TSA agent had not been doing her or his job and that the cupcake was a "security threat," as she related to told NBC Station WHDH.

The TSA agent "didn't seem to believe that the pastry might actually explode, but that it fit the bureaucratic definition of a potentially dangerous item," as Raw Story comments. Hains acknowledges that it was just a cupcake but also says that the Las Vegas agent's logic was "terrible":

"It's not really about the cupcake; I can get another cupcake. 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."

Indeed: Are TSA agents basing their judgments on what constitutes a "security threat" based first and foremost on hypothetical criteria, rather than on an actual assessment of the actual situation, items and so forth?

TSA spokesman Nico Melendez says that "passengers are allowed to take cakes and cupcakes through checkpoints." Based on Hains's experience, it seems a policy about whether frosting is allowed may be needed, too.

Read more: http://www.care2.com...l#ixzz1hYQo3CGW

Edited December 25, 2011 by Kathryn41

[Mark + Melissa 49]

TSA Confiscates Cupcake Because of Frosting

http://www.care2.com...f-frosting.html

• by Kristina Chew
• December 24, 2011
• 2:34 pm

It's the season for holiday traveling by train, bus and airplane — meaning that, it's also the season for a story about an incident involving TSA. MSNBC reports that a cupcake (red velvet, packed in an 8-ounce mason jar) was confiscated by a TSA agent at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas from Rebecca Hains, a 35-year-old communications professor at Salem State University in Massachusetts, on the grounds that its frosting looked "enough like a gel to violate TSA restrictions on allowing liquids and gels onto flights to prevent them from being used as explosives."

The cupcake and another one like it, also packed in a Mason jar, had passed through security at Logan International Airport in Boston earlier in the week. Hains informed the Las Vegas agent about the cupcake having cleared security earlier, but was told that the Boston TSA agent had not been doing her or his job and that the cupcake was a "security threat," as she related to told NBC Station WHDH.

The TSA agent "didn't seem to believe that the pastry might actually explode, but that it fit the bureaucratic definition of a potentially dangerous item," as Raw Story comments. Hains acknowledges that it was just a cupcake but also says that the Las Vegas agent's logic was "terrible":

"It's not really about the cupcake; I can get another cupcake. 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."

Indeed: Are TSA agents basing their judgments on what constitutes a "security threat" based first and foremost on hypothetical criteria, rather than on an actual assessment of the actual situation, items and so forth?

TSA spokesman Nico Melendez says that "passengers are allowed to take cakes and cupcakes through checkpoints." Based on Hains's experience, it seems a policy about whether frosting is allowed may be needed, too.

Read more: http://www.care2.com...l#ixzz1hYQo3CGW

Was going to make a witty quip here about my VJ buddy Impatient cupcake... then decided the whole things was just surreal to comment on

[Tim/Mav 305]

I would have to agree with TSA and Customs Officials. It is abnomal to want to save a Cupcake in a 8 ounce Mason Jar. You are asked at checkpoints what you have on you or in your luggage,

Thats just Common Sense. It is Not a Violation, it is a Safety matter for others. A Cupcake?

If the Lady next to me on the Plane opened a Mason Jar and Offered me a piece. OMG!

Think of what these Security People see everyday

http://youtu.be/SCUreAgkK-I

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Duplicate thread.

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

duplicate topics merged

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

duplicate topics merged

Working hard on Christmas morning?

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

Working hard on Christmas morning?

yes, merging topics is so much work.

splitting always bogs down my connection though.