Reading Beth’s story of her peanut butter confiscation (and her Nutella, which by the way, the combination of the two together make for some great sandwiches – see my chocolate blog), reminded me of my own security breach.

Now my story involves something that yes, I know I should not try to bring through security – a Swiss Army pocketknife. But it was an innocent mistake, really. The story goes as follows:

I was coming back from a fabulous adventure-filled trip in New Zealand, where I took my pocketknife with me, as it is one of the 10 essentials needed when hiking. Or as they say in New Zealand, tramping. On my way to New Zealand, I checked in my backpack with the pocketknife from Seattle, through Los Angeles, so that I could take the pocketknife on my trip. See, I was thinking and planning…

On my way back, I did the same. Or at least, I started to. I checked my backpack on the flight from New Zealand to Los Angeles, with the intention of checking it again for my flight from L.A. to Seattle. In L.A., however, we needed to get our checked luggage and take it with us through customs, as this was the first U.S. destination reached from New Zealand. Well, I did that, again, with the intention of checking my backpack for my connecting flight. But alas, the lines getting through customs were just way too long and way too slow. And time began running out. I was getting very close to needing to board the flight from L.A. to Seattle.

I got through customs with flying colors, and with a few minutes time to spare, I made my way to the ticket counter in L.A. where I intended to check in my backpack. But again, the lines were just way too long and way too slow. If I stood in these lines, I was afraid I would miss my flight.

By this time, I was so distracted with trying to make my connecting flight that I totally spaced and forgot about the pocketknife. I wasn’t even thinking of it. I decided at the last minute to just take my backpack with me on the plane as a carry-on, again forgetting that I had the pocketknife in the backpack.

And that was the innocent mistake!

I put my backpack through the security screening (which was fortunately a short line), and lo and behold, the x-ray machine spotted the pocketknife. The security guy asked if he could look through my backpack to find what the x-ray machine had spotted. As he asked me this and began to search, it dawned on me what he was looking for. A moment of panic struck me.

I began, very politely, to explain myself to the security guy – that I was hurrying to make my connecting flight after going through a long delay in customs, with no time to check the backpack, and that I had forgotten about the pocketknife.

Fortunately, he was kind to me and understood (he may have even laughed, but I can’t quite recall if he did or not). He did not scold me or throw me into jail or anything like that. Unfortunately, however, he took my pocketknife.

Well, about a month after I got back from New Zealand, and about $40 later, I bought a new pocketknife. But I have always wondered what the security staff does with items after they have been confiscated, such as my pocketknife, and even Beth’s peanut butter and Nutella.

Perhaps someone has been enjoying using my pocketknife on his or her own hiking experiences. And perhaps someone ate a wonderful peanut butter and Nutella sandwich.

Sweet Travels!

X-ray image of a backpack from Wikipedia