A note to travelers: saying the word "bomb," is never okay by the TSA. Even if you're referring to a sandwich. A man was detained by the TSA and missed his flight because he described his sandwich as "the bomb" while at the airport.
Jason Michael Cruz, 29, was supposed to fly out of New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport last Thursday, but he wound up being detained and questioned by the TSA after talking about his lunch, RT reports.
A TSA agent overheard Cruz telling his friend that his sandwich was "the wrong kind of bomb." "The Bomb" is a slang term used to describe something that is excellent. It is also the name of a specific sandwich that is full of cold cuts, cheese and toppings, but the TSA officer didn't catch the full conversation when he heard Cruz use the word bomb.
Cruz told his friend, Matthew Okumoto, that he wanted to bring "The Bombd" on the plane in his carry-on luggage . The TSA agent thought he meant an actual explosive. The TSA officer thought the young men were planning to set off a bomb on their flight to Los Angeles, so she told her supervisor about the conversation.
The TSA agents then detained the men at a security checkpoint. They held them for questioning and even called the airport police. Due to the incident, the men missed their flight.
"The TSA clerk probably got a merit badge for her quick thinking in reporting the Scary Terroristy Threat to a supervisor, and that supervisor probably got promoted. Meanwhile, Cruz missed his flight," wrote Lisa Simeone, a blogger for the TSA News Blog.
The TSA agent may have overreacted as they've had a few close calls recently. Last month, a TSA agent went undercover and was able to bypass security at Newark Liberty National Airport with a fake bomb. The agent went through two screenings with a fake explosive in his pants, but the TSA agents on duty never detected it.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
