Probably one of the dumber things I’ve done in my life was the time I packed a knife into my carry on bag. This was a few years after 9/11 and my family and I were going to Russia to visit my grandmother. I don’t remember why, but at the time I thought bringing my folding knife was a great idea. So, not even giving it a second thought, I tossed it into my bag and forgot I ever put it in there. At the airport, we were almost through the security checkpoint when they took my bag off to the side to inspect it after it had gone through the x-ray. This made me pretty nervous, as I couldn’t think of anything prohibited I could have possibly had in there. The security lady quickly found the offending item in a medium sized pocket at the front of the bag. It was a small pair of scissors, the kind you would use to cut your nails. She confiscated the scissors and let us on our way. My dad gave me such a bad look as he watched her remove the scissors like, “Ugh.. I can not believe you were stupid enough to pack those.”

Later at my grandma’s apartment we were unpacking and I found my knife, which was hidden in between some layers of clothes. “Well,” I said,” it’s a good thing they didn’t find this, or we really would have been screwed.” Sure, its one thing to go through completely undetected, but when something is detected in your bag and removed, you would think it would be the sharp knife rather than the small scissors. My dad was especially surprised, as he had earlier reprimanded me for packing the scissors, only to realize that the airport security were even more incompetent that me. I guess I just got lucky. Very, very lucky. Oh well, so much for airport security.