A mother who brought peanut butter and jelly to keep her two small children happy on a cross country flight, had her peanut butter confiscated by the TSA causing an argument.
Stephanie Lambert received $3.99 from the U.S treasury after TSA agents took her peanut butter at an airport checkpoint. Lambert was traveling with her 6 month-old, 2 year-old and husband on an early flight from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh and wanted to bring food to keep her kids distracted but she said a rude TSA agent singled her out and her family for additional screenings, and asked a number of questions surrounding the peanut butter.
She said to NBC News, "He just really fixated on the peanut butter and a jar of apple sauce I had. I keep saying, 'It's not a liquid; it's pureed apples,' but we go went around and around. He also screened my husband multiple times. I asked to speak to the terminal manager, but he never arrived. ... We were there 30 minutes."
Eventually the agent let the apple sauce and jelly go but for some reason wouldn't let them fly with peanut butter. Lambert took down names of the TSA agents but surrendered the peanut butter.
"At the airport, my husband kept saying, 'Would you just let go of the peanut butter? We're going to miss the plane.' But these things really fire me up," Lambert said to NBC News. "So when I said, 'Honey, I'm going to file a claim,' he wasn't surprised."
Lambert who saves receipts for every purchase had the receipt of the peanut butter and filed a claim form.
"I fill out forms and keep track of them all the time, so this was easy for me," she said. "I'm responsible for the family finances. If it takes me months, it takes me months. I'm very firm when companies owe me money."
On the complaint form Lambert complained that TSA agents unnecessarily screened her and her husband twice and made them wait for 30 minutes.
After submitting the claim she received a letter from TSA saying, "Your claim against the United States in the amount of $3.99 has been granted in full."
Lambert was not after the money, rather she wanted to make a point and TSA doesn't list peanut butter as a banned liquid or gel.
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