In its online “week in review,” the TSA posted that they recently confiscated an 8″ double-edged knife “artfully concealed’ as an Eiffel Tower replica. That’s the term the agency uses to describe an item that was intentionally hidden; it could be anything from a knife sewn into the lining of a bag to a sword inside a walking cane (also confiscated last week in Orlando).
Or, a knife inside a replica state of the famous Parisian landmark.
That masterpiece joins a tally which includes 42 confiscated guns, 33 of which were loaded.
The tower also joins the four vials taken by the TSA at Long Island MacArthur, labeled West Nile, Swine Flu, Small Pox and Chicken Pox. The bottles were sent to a laboratory for further testing. The passenger stated she was a doctor/holistic healer, and the vials were watered down versions of the viruses.
TSA had a busy year in 2014, screening more than 653 million passengers in 2014 (about 1.8 million per day), which is 14.8 million more passengers than last year. More than 2,212 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints across the country in 2014, according to the TSA. More than 80 percent of the firearms were loaded.
More than 50 guns were detected and seized by airport security in Virginia and West Virginia.
