Beware Of Dual-Use Items

Here's another be-careful-what-you-put-in-your-carry-on-bag story.

Robert Thorsen, a self-described middle-aged, balding, blond and blue-eyed Scandinavian-American, and occasional contributing editorialist for the Hartford Courant, got the Treatment. You know, the one you get when you annoy the TSA screener at the airport?

I hear you asking, "So what happened? Did Thorsen forget a nail file in his bag? Try to smuggle drugs? The dreaded paper clip?  A gun?" Actually, none of the above. But he did try to bring a weapon, according to the TSA.

You see, Thorsen is a geologist, and he was on his way to a geologist's conference. In his carry-on bag -- he says he doesn't like to check bags -- he'd placed a Gneiss (pronounced like nice). That's a rock. A rare specimen to be sure, but still, just a rock. The photo below is a representative example... not the actual item.

The TSA folks, at least those at Bradley International in Hartford Connecticut, regard Gneiss as dual-use items... meaning, we suppose, they can be used for more than one purpose. We guess it's dual-use because secondarily, a Gneiss can also be as a weapon -- cave-man style. Although, we're not quite sure what its primary use is.

According to the Hartford Courant, when the screener told Thorsen he had a dual-use item in his carry-on, Thorsen asked somewhat flippantly, "What, pray tell, is a dual-use item?"

Unfortunately for Thorsen, carrying an attitude is almost as dangerous as carrying a weapon at the airport these days. The screener hailed a supervisor because... well because you just have to double-team a smart-aleck.

He was told he could either go back and check his bag, or give up the Gneiss. And no, he was told, he couldn't leave it and pick it up later. TSA doesn't secure personal property.

With no time to check the bag, he had no choice, Thorsen's Gneiss was forever lost in TSA-confiscated-item purgatory. It's probably sitting on someone's desk right now... a lonely paperweight, never to serve its primary purpose again -- whatever that is.

We guess the moral of this story is, if you want to keep your Gneiss, you should be more nice. Or check it. The Gneiss or the attitude... or both.

FMI: www.tsa.gov