Airport Security....

While going through security at SFO with my mother on her way back to the UK, they picked out her hand baggage for special treatment. After checking the contents they wiped it with a swab that ran the swab through their sophisticated test machinery. Surprisingly, the machine alarm sounded and the monitor indicated “Explosives Detected” in a nice flashing display. It said the type of explosive detected was TNT.

I thought that at this point we would be in for a spot of bother. Off to the special room for strip searches and intense questioning under bright lights. This was not to be the case. The Security man just said that often medications caused false positives, all well and good but there were no medications in the bag. I at least thought this would have caused them to inspect my bags a little more closely – perhaps some of my TNT had rubbed off on my mother’s bag during our packing of the explosives. But no, we were allowed to pass on without further inquiry. Comforting isn’t it. I would agree that my mother does not fit the bill of a terrorist, but what about me? Surely I don’t look that innocent.