Plane passengers reveal the WILDEST items they have ever had confiscated at the airport

Did you think oversized toiletries or pocket knives were a problem?

Baffled travelers have now revealed some of the crazier items they’ve seized at airport security, including everything from caviar to cannonballs.

In a Reddit thread titled “Items seized at the airport,” one user asked, “What is your most interesting, funny, or weird story about items being confiscated from you at the airport?”

They added that the strangest item they had to return was a jar of honey.

The thread quickly generated hundreds of responses. Here we reveal some of the stranger stories of run-ins with the TSA.

Stunned travelers have now revealed some of the crazier items they’ve seized at airport security, with everything from caviar to cannonballs in the mix (stock image)

Caviar

Caviar caused a problem for one traveler. The Reddit user revealed: ‘My father traveled back to our home country from Russia about twenty years ago.

‘He had a medium sized tin of caviar in his bag, he told me he had checked three times to see if he could carry it and found no evidence against it.

‘Sure enough, he was stopped at security and informed that this was not allowed.

‘My father was pretty sure the security just wanted to take the caviar for themselves.

‘After arguing for a while, he opened the caviar tin and ate the whole thing in front of them. [He then] thanked them for their time and moved on.”

A traveler’s caviar was seized during security checks when he returned from Russia (stock image)

Bread knife

An innocent purchase of the house turned out to be a nightmare for one traveler.

Explaining the offending kitchen item, they wrote: ‘I bought a lovely lunch box from a homewares store in Sydney and the store packed it for me.

‘At the airport security asked me what was in the bag and I told them. Then they told me to stand back and not touch anything while they opened it.

‘I didn’t know the bread bin came with a 12 inch bread knife, which was in the bin. How embarrassing. And frustratingly, it was a damn good knife.”

Hidden bullet

Two American cruise passengers were recently arrested in Turks and Caicos after security found ammunition in their bags during a stop.

And a Reddit user in the thread reiterated that bullets are also a no-go in airport security.

Recounting an incident, they wrote: “I know a man who was an avid hunter, and at one point a single .22 bullet had forced its way through a hole in his pocket and lodged deep into the fabric layers of his cargo pants secured.

“It turns out that the TSA takes a hidden bullet through security quite seriously.

“No charges were ultimately filed, but needless to say he missed his flight that day and now appears to have a lifetime supply of additional airport screening.”

Mathematical compass

A compass caused problems for one passenger at an airport in Egypt (stock image)

Attention designers and mathematicians, because a drawing compass caused a commotion at an airport in Aswan, Egypt.

The traveler revealed in the Reddit thread that the tool was examined “very closely” by several guards.

After the inspection, the guards decided it could be dangerous.

The Reddit user continued the story, writing: ‘One of the guys held it up, then unscrewed the bolt and removed the small point (it’s small, 4mm at most), made a frowny face at me and threw the point in a biohazard box.

“He put the rest of the compass back in the box and gave it back to me. I just laughed and said he could keep it… I mean, it’s pretty useless without any use.”

Dried tangerine

Check every nook and cranny of your suitcases before you travel, a Reddit user warns, as an old piece of fruit proved to be a nuisance for them during their trip through Los Angeles.

They wrote about the debacle: “LA airport security insisted we import food from outside the US in our checked luggage.

‘They kept us waiting for two hours and emptied our huge suitcase in fruitless attempts to find that food.

“Finally they came across a dry mandarin that must have been floating around in the corner of that trunk for the past five years and proudly confiscated it.”

Space slime

Still haunting them to this day, another Reddit contributor revealed how an “amazing slime” was confiscated from them by airport security when they were about 11 years old.

Regarding the chain of events, they wrote: [The slime] was my one souvenir I chose for myself at the Smithsonian Space Museum in DC.

“We went to so many of them that day, I literally had so much fun. Our last one was the Space One and in the gift shop they claimed the slime was “space slime”, obviously just cool looking slime, but as a kid I thought it was the coolest and most interesting thing ever and this was before slime was in every store.

“So we went to TSA and they took it out of my backpack, I literally cried so much. I begged the lady not to do it, to the point where she felt bad and asked if we had another bag we could check. It hurt my little heart so much.

“Looking back, I know it wasn’t a problem, but for a little kid it really is.”

Following the traumatic incident, the Reddit user says they now always check their suitcases ‘twice’ before traveling to ensure nothing is ever thrown away.

Mustard

Many people in the Reddit thread revealed food items confiscated by airport security, including jam, honey and Nutella.

One respondent said he was surprised when Icelandic mustard purchased at Reykjavik airport when entering the US was confiscated.

They added: ‘The shocked and sad look on my husband’s face still haunts me.’

Another traveler recounted a similar mustard fiasco when traveling from Dusseldorf to Newark.

They reminisced: ‘It was a jar of grainy mustard for me. It still hurts to lose it. It was a completely arbitrary decision.

‘In the meantime, I’m done with lighters, matches, pocket knives, etc. that were in a dark corner of a pocket or purse and long forgotten.’

Cannonballs

Cannonballs caused trouble for an airport visitor in Mexico City (image)

Skip cannonballs when shopping for souvenirs, one Reddit user recommends.

They revealed in the thread that they had purchased two baseball-sized cannonballs from an antique store in Cartagena, Colombia, believing they would make a “nice souvenir and only cost about $10.”

Telling about the problems that arose as a result of purchasing the new product, they wrote: “I packed the cannonballs in my hand luggage and flew from Cartagena to Bogota without any problems.

‘The next flight, Bogota to Mexico City, we still had them in our hand luggage. But when we went through security again in Mexico City, the security guard said we couldn’t fly with them.

‘We had very little time and didn’t want to miss our connecting flight, so we left them.

“I’m not sure we could have packed them in our checked luggage, but we probably shouldn’t have flown with them in the first place.”

“I later discovered that other tourists did this and caused the airport to be evacuated because they sometimes still had gunpowder in their homes.”

Handcuffs

Handcuffs caused problems for a handful of travelers.

An employee on the discussion forum said of their handcuff headaches: ‘Handcuffs were confiscated in Morocco.

‘They were in checked luggage, but at the airport you have to put all your bags through a scanner before you can check in.

“So the security guard took them out of my bag in front of everyone. God bless him he had no idea what they could have been for. My husband had to convince him that we had no nefarious intentions.’