July 30, 2022
Dear editor;
Don’t know how to contact the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) management, but I have to tell you that they should check for thieves! I flew from Rockford to Mesa/Tempe, Ariz. and back to Illinois in February this year, and had no problems, either way.
In April, I flew again, had the same items in my purse and carry-on, but this little piece of information, “at the officer’s discretion” lets checkers see something they want, take it, and that phrase covers a lot of thefts, in my opinion!
Many years ago, I, and approximately 20 other women, took a self-defense class from a policeman. He showed us a three-to-four-inch plastic round bar that he told us could be used by holding it in our hands and, attached to our keys, could be used to swing the keys, which would do more damage to the attacker than the “Kubiton”. I used it to find my keys in the bottom of my purse! Well when I left the Rockford Airport, I had no Kubiton. It was a possible weapon. It was decided by woman in security after conferring with her partner. If they assumed it was a weapon, then I can assume it is hanging off her key chain right now! See something, want it, say it can’t be in your carry on, take it! Easy peasy! At her discretion! I am an 87-year -old woman, in a wheelchair, and asked them if I looked like a terrorist. No, but the Kubiton was a possible weapon and I had it.
Coming back to Illinois from Mesa/Tempe Gateway Airport, I had a bunch of knitted things for family and friends. I had extra yarn and checked to see if I could knit on the plane! Yes, no problem! According to the rules, which we checked, all I had to do was cover the points with little rubber covers! Nine-inch knitting needles were not weapons. I opted for bamboo because I didn’t want the metal confiscated, but these tip covers were used to keep the stitches from sliding off the needles. I may be a little slow at my age, but bamboo needles could be weapons. Nope! No problems with them!
At Mesa/Tempe, I put all my stuff on the tray, got through that part of the ritual, but when I was being patted down in the wheelchair, I looked over, and a young guy was checking my luggage for weapons of mass destruction, and I watched when he slid something into his pocket. I should have yelled and asked someone to check his pockets, but unfortunately I did not. I had no idea what he could have stolen from my carry-on. This thief went into my purse, which was rolled up in a corner of the bigger carry-on. I didn’t discover it until later when I wanted to cut a piece of yarn from a project I was working on. I had a teeny scissors , plastic handle I’d had for many years, Went through the airport machine three times. The blade was one-seventh of an inch long, used for cutting yarn. The second one he stole was for cutting needlework thread. They didn’t go into a tray for trash. He looked right at me and put them in his pocket. But he had to dig through a lot of things in my carry-on to get to my purse, open it, and get the small case containing those two tiny scissors.
You can bet my camera phone will be loaded to 100 % to take pictures when I go back west. Does anyone know how to reach the TSA headquarters? Would they even care?
Evelyn Essling, Aurora