One Bomb Appraisal Officer (BAO) Reportedly Asked Several Passengers About Planted White Powder

You may remember a story ANN reported in January about a TSA officer who allegedly planted a baggie containing white powder in the bag of a college student, asking her if the material was hers. 22-year-old Rebecca Solomon was clearing security in Philadelphia when she says a TSA agent held up a plastic bag containing a white powder and asked "Where did you get this from?" The agent reportedly allowed the terrified student to stutter and stammer "I've never seen that before" for nearly a minute before admitting he was "just kidding." ABC news reports that Solomon detailed the incident in an editorial in her college newspaper, the Michigan Daily.

Now, a memo obtained through a Freedom of Information Request by the website "The Smoking Gun" shows that the Bomb Appraisal Officer (BAO) in question played the "joke" on multiple passengers while waiting for data collection to be done on other equipment in separate security lanes.

The memo, which redacts the name of the BAO, indicates that on two occasions the officer confronted passengers retrieving their luggage from the X-Ray machine, and asking if they had anything they shouldn't have in their luggage. In both instances, when the passengers said "no," the BAO reportedly held up a vial of Creatine Powder,  a substance which was part of the unrelated equiment evaluation process. In both instances, the  BAO eventually told the passengers he was "just checking" and then said "have a nice flight."

The University of Maryland Medical Center website describes Creatine as "a naturally occurring amino acid (protein building block) that's found in meat and fish, and also made by the human body in the liver, kidneys, and pancreas. It is converted into creatine phosphate or phosphocreatine and stored in the muscles, where it is used for energy." It is often listed as a body-building supplement.

There was at least one discrepancy between the woman's description and that of the memo. In the document, the container is described as a 'vial" of white powder, while the woman alleged it was a "baggie". The memo does not detail any further action from the incident.

FMI: www.tsa.gov