The TSA blog’s year in review highlights some of their proudest accomplishments—like apprehending an alarm clock they mistook for an explosive, or seizing a revolver from a 94-year-old.
The agency regularly halts passengers traveling with “realistic” toys or replicas of weapons. (They’re really not fans of the Halloween spirit.) This year they seized a harmless replica of a mine, an inert firework display, an unloaded cannon barrel, and a wide assortment of other inert items.
They also found some fairly creative weapons: an assortment of throwing stars, a saw blade in a Bible, a lipstick stun gun, and a pocket knife in a bag of potato chips.
Some passengers got even more inventive with their contraband. At San Jose International Airport, someone stuffed three pounds of cocaine into a plastic bag full of raw meat:
While someone else buried a knife in their enchiladas:
The TSA reported before the end of last year that they had taken a record number of firearms. Overall they seized 2,212 guns at 224 airports—a 22 percent increase from last year’s 1,813.
Their record so far for most-guns-seized-in-a-day is now 18, on June 4, 2014.
Some of their biggest takeaways:
For city-by-city numbers on guns seized, FiveThirtyEight has rounded up all the data into one chart.
