If you’ve been at an airport or flown anywhere in the last 10 years, you know the whole airport security process can be a pain in the patootie. Between the ever-changing regulations on what is allowed and not allowed to be carried on to accusations that new X-Ray machines will give you cancer, the TSA has been the bearer of the brunt of the stories people tell.
This week’s TSA Done Me Wrong! story is from a woman who feels disenfranchised because the cupcake she was taking through airport security was confiscated.
[On a personal note, if you try to take away a cupcake I want so badly that I'm willing to carry it through security and fly it somewhere as my companion, you may end up with teeth marks on your jugular.]
Many of us airline travelers transport food as a carry-on either because the cost of the food on the plane is exorbitant and is the equivalent of gnawing on cardboard, or because there are no good Italian bakeries within a 200-mile radius of your house and that box of cookies is coming home. If the food you’re taking on the plane with you falls in line with TSA regulations, you’re allowed to take it on as your dark passenger carry-on.
In Rebecca Hains’s case, she was carrying on a cupcake. According to TSA’s blog post about the incident, however, it was not your normal cupcake as they exemplify in this image:
The TSA is saying that their agent made the right decision in stopping the cupcake-in-a-jar-in-question from reaching its destination.
We have to agree.
If this is in fact similar to what Ms. Hains was carrying on the plane, who knows what the what is going on inside that jar. The cupcake icing appeared to be a “gel” substance, and TSA regulations clearly state that gels, liquids, and aerosols must be in individual containers of 3 oz or less.
This isn’t your normal, everyday baked good making its merry way to your into your mouth and eventually to your thighs. This is a concoction of ingredients used to make some sort of eventual baked good.
The TSA agent was correct in confiscating the cupcake-in-a-jar and eating destroying it.
Why has this become a viral story?
Because it’s easy to lambast the TSA for taking an innocent cupcake from an innocent woman, innocently traveling to her destination.
But there’s more to the story, and that more to the story is not viral-worthy, but that’s not fun to read about.
Saying THE TSA TOOK MY CUPCAKE is all kinds of fun.
image & information via The TSA Blog
So much less drama here than “THE TSA TOOK MY SON” story! But I would get a tad crabby if I had been hoping to have my cupcake as a snack on the plane!!
Fine, they were right by the letter of the law I suppose, but REALLY? Geez, what have we come to?
How were they right? The only difference between the two cupcakes pictured is one is in a jar and one isn’t. I mailed a cupcake in a jar across the country, and it made it to its destination with no problem. Why is this a threat? Pretty lame if you ask me.
Frankly TSA rules don’t bother me at all if they mean that our skies are safe (Spoken like a true pilot’s daughter I suppose). While I think TSA does a horrific job of making everyone follow the rules (their attitude doesn’t help either) I completely agree with them not letting the jarred cupcake through. They don’t let jars of jelly, frosting, or other liquids (their definition, not ours, and it includes jelly, gels, etc) through so why should this be an exception? You couldn’t bring a huge bottle of cough syrup through either (over the counter that is) and the fact of the matter is, without extensive testing they can’t tell if the “frosting” is frosting or an explosive substance. The rule is liquids in 3 oz or less containers & this didn’t fit the rule, plain and simple.
Oh man, now I want a cupcake. A real one, not in a jar.
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