Security Encounter

As you would be aware there is heightened security measures in the UK for hand luggage – basically nothing of a liquid, gel, cream or lotion nature in addition to the standard no combustibles or sharp pointy items – which means I am currently 5 hours with out lipe balm! :(

My encounter with security came about due not to the new restrictions but to the one on sharp pointy things – which is rather silly considering how used to it I am.

It started on Friday when I threw my scissors in my back pack along with a bunch of Random stuff that I would pack into my check-in bag when I got to London because we were running late.

However when it came to sorting things out I didn’t see the scissors and forgot all about them.

When I checked in they asked about liquids, pointy things, combustibles etc in my hand luggage to which I responded only my water which I would throw out when I joined the cue for security. So with my boarding pass in hand I headed on my merry way to the security check cue – which was rather long so I read my book as I shuffled along and before I knew it, it was my turn to have my bad x-rayed and walk through the metal detector. I made it through the metal detector fine but my bag wasn’t so lucky- it was diverted to a desk where it had to await the attentions of a staff member. Finally they brought it over to counter where everything was taken out of the bag.

Having flicked through all the papers and books I had – he left them with me while he took everything else to be re- x-rayed – but no scissors showed up so he came back to where I was and did a bit more of a shake and flick with the books and papers and there they were – they had been caught up inside the cover of my “Black ‘n’ Read” note book – sad to say they are now the property of Stansted Airport.

I wonder how easy it would be have been for me to palm the scissors from the not book while my bag was being re-xrayed if I had known they were there.

And what do the airports do with all the scissors and other confiscated items?