Only in America ...

[Lasse Vorma]

Bomb alert over 'break-wind' dog
The mechanical toy dog sparked an airport security alert
A novelty toy dog which breaks wind sparked a major security alert at an
American airport.

Page designer Dave Rogerson's life-size mechanical terrier set off a
security detector at Norfolk Airport in Virginia.

Armed security staff were alerted when the toy's wind-breaking mechanism
registered as a high explosive on sensitive monitoring equipment.

Mr Rogerson, 31, from Thorner, Leeds, was questioned by FBI agents and
looked on in amazement as they took a series of swabs from the
mechanical toy's rear end.

The toy animal was eventually returned to him, but he was not allowed to
take his planned flight and had to take an alternative route to North
Carolina.

Mr Rogerson said: "There's no humour at American check-ins and for about
20 minutes I was quite scared.

"They told me it is the highest reading they had for explosives and they
took it very seriously.

"They were very jumpy and convinced there was something explosive in the
dog."

Eventually the FBI experts decided the toy was harmless and returned it
to him.

He has now named the toy dog Norfolk after the airport.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_yorkshire/3213403.stm

[Cub Driver]

>The mechanical toy dog sparked an airport security alert
>A novelty toy dog which breaks wind sparked a major security alert at an
>American airport.

My daughter sailed to the South Pacific and hung out for a couple
years in New Zealand and Australia, coming back to visit whenever we
sent her the credit card number. She had an Olivetti portable
typewriter (manufactured in Mexico these days).

Because she'd gotten to Down Under by boat, she was always *returning*
there on the second half of her ticket. So here was this American,
young, single, with no checked luggage (her stuff was already there),
no return ticket to the U.S., badly dressed like the rest of her
generation, carrying a mechanical device. The perfect drug smuggler!
So the immigration folks always played their catch-the-smuggler card:
"That's a typewriter, is it? All right--turn it on!"


all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

[Simon Robbins]

"Cub Driver" > wrote in message
...
> So the immigration folks always played their catch-the-smuggler card:
> "That's a typewriter, is it? All right--turn it on!"

I know someone that was held by armed guards in NY while her laptop was
checked out because it set off (swabbed I guess) a plastic explosive
deector. Turns out, as she was told, that the method of manufacturing the
batteries leaves a dust residue that resembles the profile of plastique.

Si

[Dav1936531]

>From: Lasse Vorma
>
>
>Bomb alert over 'break-wind' dog
>The mechanical toy dog sparked an airport security alert

The Department of Homeland Security recently released a warning to airports to
be specifically watching for stuffed toy animals and other stuffed items (like
pillos) after having learned that Al-Qaeda was experimenting with various
chemicals in an attempt to turn some types of stuffing materials into either
explosives or combustables.

Should be something on google about it, but I'm not going there to search it
out right now.
Dave