Most ridiculous thing to be confiscated at an airport...

[twentypence]

A rubber kids snake from Australia zoo - some old lady might get scared apparently.

Cue one devastated kid the whole way home. But you can't complain to customs officials anymore because you get arrested.

And the gift shop in the airport sells guess what?

ds's completely blunt school scissors

A small jar of honey. Customs at Sydney did not bat an eyelid when this went through in my hand luggage.

Different story though at Singapore. It was not so much the item that annoyed me so much as the the attitude of the person who confiscated it. She gave me a big grin prior to disposal indeed - bloody jobsworth!. Small wonder I have little confidence in security as its not based on common sense.

P.S Where did the snake get confiscated?.

my dad went away when we were kids and had a plastic sword confiscated

(and this was in the seventies )

well, either that or he lied to my brother about buying him a present

my children's knives and forks. Ther worst you could possibly have done with them was give someone a nasty poke. My dad once had a silver teapot confiscated, I have no idea why!

A small tube of Aveda hand cream that was exactly 5 mls over the amount you are allowed through security. Oh, and they sell it in the airport shop.

(I was convinced the woman who confiscated it wanted it for herself)

The "snake" was confiscated at Brisbane airport.

There were murmurs at custons when we were in Paris, that they wanted to take DS's baby blanket off him

A pram sized cellular blanket, being held by a nervous 2 year old as a comforter = usually only has it for bed, but was anxious.

I looked the woman in the eye and said "don't be ridiculous" very coldly and she let us through!!

Stupid muppets at Brisbane - that airport is local to Australia Zoo!!!.

"Some old lady might get scared apparantly". Well if customs at Brisbane think a little old lady may become frightened by a rubber snake then I think customs need to get a life. What planet are these people on?. Jobsworths like these give security staff with some common sense a bad name.

I would have written a strongly worded letter of complaint to them on my return.

Back in the 1984 dh (was then dp) had flown all the way home from Jordan with a huge cake and cake knife on his lap on Royal Jordanian, without a murmer. I met him at Heathrow and when we went to board our Brymon flight to Plymouth, had the cake knife confiscated!

db came back from Belize with a four foot blow pipe/spear as cabin luggage which was fine with the airport people. They took his parang from his suitcase though.

What's a parang?

My little contact lens box because there was a teensy amount of lens solution in it. Offered to put it in my eye to prove it was not some explosive but was refused.

Lenses fused to my eyeballs in the 10 hour flight that followed.

elizabeth arden 8hr cream

not ridiculous, but expensive enough to be maddening

Four Innocent smoothies bought to provide breakfast for my four children at almost £2 each. Bloody terrorists.

It was my fault I know but I'm not used to this ridiculous new system and it all spiralled out of control trying to sort out four young kids on my own at the airport at 7am.

An apple and a Babybel cheese at Quarantine at Perth airport.

The children hadn't finished them on the plane so they confiscated them as they couldn't see a label with the country of origin on them!

DH had 2 pints FROZEN milk confiscated at our small local airport.

He argued that it wasn't technically a liquid and qould probably still been solid by the time he got back to Uni.

Maybe they were worried that he may 'club' the attendant with one?

I bet it went for their morning coffee

A bar of toblarone chocolate at Sydney airport (felt like asking if they wanted me to stop and poo before I was allowed in as I had eaten some food on the flight, but restrained myself)

Which country has the worst jobsworths then?

Sounds like Australia is winning which suprises me - I thought it would be the USA.

All this food being taken - was it just before lunch time?

I'm always getting stopped at airports grrr.

I once got taken into a room on my own at Heathrow when I was about 17 (it gave me a huge fright) and they told me afterwards it was because they thought, at first sight, that my oboe was a machine gun .

I remember a few years ago in the news (before there were such tight rules about all this) a woman had some frozen puff pastry in her bag. She was on a visit to her daughter and promised to make something involving pastry and had to bring the ingreidients with her.

Officials thought it was a block of plastic explosive and detonated her bag in a controlled explosion.

Two oranges.

Message withdrawn

A referees whistle. My DW was furious at the securities attitude. He was apparently holding it over his head in the manner of a school kid so she couldn't reach it.

She was shouting at him so much that she had to get escorted away by the supervisor.

"What the fuck do you think i am going to do with it? WHISTLE THE PILOT TO DEATH?"

Afterwards she had to explain to my eldest DD who is 9 (who was stood open-mouthed in awe at the whole saga) - 'Mummy wasn't being very nice there and was using some bad words - i've been very naughty and shouldn't have done that. I don't think you should tell Daddy because he will be upset at me'

She refused to hand it over to them so she went back to pack it away in the hand luggage.

When she came back through security (Where she had obviously already been searched) Guess what they did? That's right - made her empty the whole pram and take her shoes and belt off and other things they didn't do the first time - just to piss her off and show her who's boss.

What a bunch of arrogant officous pricks.

They are just jumped-up security gaurds who seem to have this enormous sense of self-worth and importance.

Confiscating inoffensive items off normal people travelling within their own country is quite a pointless way of spending you time if you ask me.