TSA Gets a Buzz, Shuts Down Airport

Honey, I shrunk the terminal!

The suspicious material found inside luggage that prompted the shutdown of a California airport Tuesday morning turned out to be five soft drink bottles filled with honey, authorities said.

A passenger's suitcase tested positive for TNT at Bakersfield's Meadows Field during a routine swabbing of the bag's exterior, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. When TSA officials opened the bag, they found bottles filled with an amber liquid, he said.

"Why in this day and age would someone take a chance carrying honey in Gatorade bottles?" Youngblood asked. "That itself is an alarm. It's hard to understand."

Investigators said the bag's owner, Francisco Ramirez, 31, is a gardener from Milwaukee who has been cooperating with authorities. He flew to Bakersfield Dec. 23 to spend Christmas with his sister and was returning Tuesday when the alarm sounded.

When TSA agents opened one of the bottles and tested the contents, the resulting fumes nauseated them, Youngblood said. Both were treated and released at a local hospital.

This is the kind of stuff that makes me nervous when I have to fly. I'm not scared of terrorists, but of some guy shutting down the airport for a stupid reason and messing up my flights.

And in another great TSA moment, they seized all the Play-Doh from a child's Christmas gift, even though Play-Doh is not prohibited on airliners and can be brought on board. I actually would have thought that Play-Doh would be prohibited since it could be mistaken for plastic explosives, but I guess not. I'm not sure anyone really knows what the rules are.