Originally Posted by
Maple Syrup Actual
I ended up using my already-available HPG kit bag...I took it on a ten day trip to Ontario through airports etc etc with all the critical stuff.
It was actually really, really handy. I thought it might cause trouble in airports for looking to military or something, but the only problem I actually had was with a totally civilian, innocuous grey shoulder bag, which I was asked to empty in front of a flight security agent.
It was a pain, because the thing was really overstuffed and I'd been in line for three hours with a two year old who was up five hours earlier than usual and they were trying to force me to make him walk the security gauntlet through the scanners alone and he was freaking out and things got hostile from there because I was about out of patience with lowly-trained idiots enforcing rules that were evidently beyond their own comprehension.
Anyway their reasoning for forcing me to empty it was "to take that case of beer out."
"You want me to remove a case of beer from this bag?"
"Yes, that's right."
"No, I can't do that. Sorry."
"If you won't, I will."
"No, you won't."
So the agent opened it up furiously and started pulling stuff out, eventually getting to a baby formula box (incidentally not all that close in proportion to a case of beer.)
"I figured you wouldn't be able to pull a case of beer out of that bag. Anything else before I tie up your table for a while repacking it?"
"You still can't have this much liquid in a carry-on," she said, holding the box.
"How much liquid is that?"
"Each bottle would have to be under 100ml and you couldn't have 12 of them."
"Fine. You want to throw away every single bottle you find in that box, or what?"
"I can throw out the entire box."
"No, I need the box and all its contents."
"I told you, you can't take this much liquid on the plane."
"I can and I will."
"Sir," she said, emphasizing each word, "you can not."
"Do you want to open the box?"
The box contained a carefully folded suit which weighed nothing even close to the equivalent amount of baby formula.
"Great work, agent. Keep those skies safe."
Usually by this point Erin is trying to make me stop talking but they made the kid cry and I am pretty sure she wanted me to make the agent cry in retaliation.