Man Sues TSA For $5 Million Over Peanut Butter Arrest
Never say 'explosive peanut butter' in front of a TSA agent.
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New York Daily News
Take a jar of fancy peanut butter, add a dumb joke about explosives at airport security, and you’ve got the makings of a nutty federal lawsuit.
A former New Yorker is suing a TSA worker at LaGuardia Airport and a Port Authority cop for $5 million after they busted him for trying to bring a jar of Crazy Richard’s peanut butter on the plane.
Frank Hannibal claims in a complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court that he wound up in the sticky situation when the screener noticed the layer of oil atop his gourmet peanut butter — and ordered him out of the line.
“They’re looking to confiscate my explosives,” Hannibal sarcastically told his wife and twin 6-year-old daughters, the court papers state.
The TSA worker, identified in the papers as Edwin Sanchez, overheard Hannibal, apparently didn’t get the joke — and called the cops.
Minutes later, Officer Spencer Newman slapped the cuffs on Hannibal and charged him with falsely reporting an incident, a felony, then dragged him off to jail where he spent the next 25 hours, and where he was served a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich.
"It sounds laughable now but at the time to be led out of there like a terrorist was unbelievable. My whole life was up in the air. It was a nightmare. My children were overwhelmed. It was crazy.”
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More on the story from Infowars
“It’s a sorry state of affairs in this country when sarcasm is considered a felony,” his attorney, Alan D. Levine of Queens, noted, adding that TSA agents need to act with common sense in such situations.
This is not an isolated incident. The TSA has a history of concentrating on looking out for cakes and pies, as well as sauces, oils and vinegars.
The Homeland Security agency has also instituted a crack down on candy and cupcakes.
At the same time, people are routinely waltzing through security lines with swords, knives, explosives and guns. Many agents are too busy groping women and searching old people’s diapers tobother checking passports and flight passes.
Still, it’s good to know that the government is keeping Americans safe from sandwich wielding jokers.
Feb 13, 2013 at 1:51 AM
Reader Comments (2)
Allow me to explain: I carry gold and silver I purchase in US when returning to make a living, back to my home in a foreign country, always in real currency form (Canadian. Austrian, Chinese and US gold and silver coins) so as not to break any laws about exceeding the US $10,000 limit (without need of reporting it according to regulations by Customs.) Understand?
So, I am carrying some coins, in my backpack, and come up to the TSA checkpoint in Seattle. I place my carry-on and backpack for X-Ray. I go through the Peeping Tom machines (yeah baybeee, that IS all me ;<), and wait for my bags to come out the other side. Of course, I get stopped from taking my backpack, and am asked to go to table so they "'can take a look." I ask them, is the X-Ray machine broken, and they reply it "can't see through everything you are carrying."
The really bright looking (sarcasm alert) TSA girl assigned to peep asks me if I am "carrying anything sharp" before she start rummaging through my backpack. I know what she is looking for by now....so I tell her "I don't recall...doesn't your X-Ray machine work?" I get "the look." (This child is less than half my age, btw).
Sure enough, she pulls out my box with 4 full rolls of brand new US silver eagles (in clear cases they come in, you understand), and 5 or 6 1oz gold coins I purchased, in clear plastic sealed folders. She actually asks me what they are...I say "US Currency, you have never seen an American coin before?" There "the look" again. Fascists make the funniest faces....
She tells me "the machine can't see through the metal"...then proceeds to place all the coins in a basket, and starts walking away...I quickly follow her, she turns, and says "You cannot follow me, I am going to have them X-rayed again!" Then she carries them ABOVE HER HEAD in front of maybe 200 people lined up, over to the X-Ray machine, and places it on the same conveyor belt they had just been on. (genius alert)
Then she comes back, and hands me the basket. I ask her, "didn't you just tell me the X-Ray machine CAN'T SEE THROUGH the coins??? Have you had warnings over US CURRENCY COINS YOU CAN SEE, CAUSING HARM???" She giggles and tells me "have a nice day, I am just doing my job, keeping you safe." I tell her while she is walking away "I feel much safer now that 200 people know I am carrying $20,000 worth of gold and silver, honey." Luckily, her rear was too far from my foot, and I wanted out of that place, my country, asap.
So I walked away. Maybe we should not be walking away, maybe we should be banding together, standing together and retaking our dignity, our rights, our country.