Last Updated on 07/09/2014 by Chris Gampat
That is a six-bladed throwing star that was found in a carryon bag at the Las Vegas Airport. The only reason we know about it is because of the TSA’s Instagram feed, which is actually just over a year old. The feed provides a steady of stream of fairly outlandish items confiscated from passengers across the US.
The feed isn’t strictly bombs and bullets. There are also of photos of TSA staff and drug-sniffing dogs, but the real gold comes in the form of those confiscated items. Each post comes with a friendly reminder about that item and related items being forbidden in carryon luggage and some advice about traveling safely.
From stuns guns disguised as cigarette cartons to bomb-like alarm clocks, the TSA feed has it all, and it provides startling insight to an organization that is almost always the target of everyone’s anger. The TSA has never really enjoyed great publicity, thanks in no small part to those massive full body scanners to ludicrous pat-downs of old folks and children, but they seem to be making a genuine effort with their Instagram feed.
In an ideal world, of course, this feed wouldn’t exist because there wouldn’t be folks packing katanas and stun guns in their carry on luggage. Moreover, there wouldn’t be any delays, and those large scanners wouldn’t let folks see our private bits. Of course, that world doesn’t exist.
People do try to get these things through, and for those of you with a bit of schadenfreude, the TSA’s Instagram will provide a good deal of awfully mind-boggling entertainment.
Head on for more images from the TSA.