Airport Security Confiscates Kids' Tennis Rackets
- 12 years ago
Airport Security Confiscates Kids' Tennis Rackets - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.
Although airport security has been cracking down in recent years, some measures seem overly paranoid. Leeds Bradford Airport’s security personnel seized children’s tennis rackets from a 46-year-old father of two, Richard Chew. Airport employees claimed the sporting goods could potentially be used as weapons to render someone unconscious. Chew states “I support everything that’s done to make our skies safe but looking at the size and weight of what are little more than toys suggests that common sense flew out of the window that day”. He was later told by officials that he could take the small rackets onboard if he paid a fee to check them in, however time constraints got in the way.
Last summer, a Detroit family was traumatized after TSA agents confiscated a toy hammer. 29-year-old Drew Mandy has special needs, having the mental capacity of a small child. Agents made a scene, seizing the six-inch harmless toy that Mandy had carried for over 20 years. The TSA later publicly apologized, calling it an “isolated case of bad judgment”.
Although airport security has been cracking down in recent years, some measures seem overly paranoid. Leeds Bradford Airport’s security personnel seized children’s tennis rackets from a 46-year-old father of two, Richard Chew. Airport employees claimed the sporting goods could potentially be used as weapons to render someone unconscious. Chew states “I support everything that’s done to make our skies safe but looking at the size and weight of what are little more than toys suggests that common sense flew out of the window that day”. He was later told by officials that he could take the small rackets onboard if he paid a fee to check them in, however time constraints got in the way.
Last summer, a Detroit family was traumatized after TSA agents confiscated a toy hammer. 29-year-old Drew Mandy has special needs, having the mental capacity of a small child. Agents made a scene, seizing the six-inch harmless toy that Mandy had carried for over 20 years. The TSA later publicly apologized, calling it an “isolated case of bad judgment”.