It's a rock pick, not a Friggin RPG!

Recently on my way home from abroad I was detained in Heathrow for having a rock pick in my suitcase. I travel a lot - Haven’t been here in quite some time - and I have several tools that are considered Lethal and are on lists to not come aboard planes in Carry ons or must be locked and declared. So I do this everytime I fly, I bring my declaration paper with me, show the security my wares and I’m on my way. Well the one time I decide to get to the airport early for a bite to eat and a pint I find myself instead staring at the eyes of several men who are looking at me like some sort of international heathen!

I happen to be employed as an archaeologist, I have several tools that are considered by the US homeland security to be no no’s on domestic and international flights…Unless I adhere to very strict guidelines. So do you know what I do? I adhere to very strict guidelines!

Visibly frustrated I was detained from my flight, and was forced to take a separate flight 3 hours later. Sorry for the rant…I know there are a lot of international and domestic workers trying to keep our countries safe! My kudos to them…I should not have lost my cool, but jeez! I didn’t even get my pint!

Were you booked on BA? BA flights to the US are under hightened security now as some evidence apparently surfaced linking them to a possible attack.

Still, with your proper papers this comes as a bit of a surprise and is distressing to any rock hammer afficionados, archaeologists and geologist alike. Sorry friend, that’s a bummer.

Yes I was booked on BA and I have never had a problem with them…as a matter of fact they are usually the kindest and most friendly airline. They must give incentives for bubbliness. Not this past weekend though…they were behaving like rabid jackals that just got tazed in the balls!

I literally did not have anything on me that did not check out. Passport, declaration papers, everything. The only thing I think may have happened is that I was flying home alone, and not with my team! I hadn’t seen my wife since before Christmas and I was in a terrible hurry to get home to her.

That’s a fucking great line.

So are you saying that I shouldn’t try and take my trowels when I go over next summer? I had a problem one time in London coming home. I got stopped when I was traveling with my ex-wife and a friend. They said that unless you are family you have to seperate. When they asked who I was traveling with I told them my wife. They pulled us aside because they said I was traveling with someone else too, when just two seconds before they said I wasn’t supposed to say that. Idiots.

Well, we were at, OMG, Orange Alert …

And you Indiana Jones guys are suspicious looking with your wide-brimmed hats and whips.

I assume you also have declaration papers for your pistol and bullwhip, Mr. Jones? :dubious: And this large crate, here, with the swastikas?

AW, CRAP! Homebrew beat me to it. Screw, I’m posting anyway.

Well, I was wearing a baseball cap with a mercedes benz sign on the front. I had a khaki twill sport coat and corduroy like-colored slacks on…I’m not exactly standing out like a sore thumb…They noticed on the declaration papers the "tools" I was carrying and one of the younger fellows pointed out I had several on the no-fly list.
Please sir, will you accompany me to security?

Having been in similar situations before I learned quickly not to ask any questions and be as complacent as possible.

Furthermore, I knew the ark was already on a flight earlier that morning :wink:

Upon reading the thread title I was wondering “Why would someone confuse a rock musician’s guitar pick with D+D”?

No, seriously!

I thought something similar involving role-playing games. Shows you where my head is at.

I’m lost, were you trying to carry the rock pick on, or was it in your checked luggage?

Where you by any chance carrying any ALMANACS?

Where do you do field work that you need a rock pick? Did you have any trouble with your Marshalltown?

Maybe you would have had better luck with an RPG. You can’t really stab someone in the skull at close range with one of those.

Many years ago – well before 9/11 – I checked a rifle in baggage.

Yes, it’s allowed, or was then. The front ticket agents made me remove it from its case and demonstrate to them that it was unloaded, then promptly had near-hysterics at the very sight of A Gun when I showed them the rifle and opened the chamber. They acted like it was the most horrible weapon of mass destruction they had ever been forced to allow to be transported, and made me feel like a jerk for transporting or owning a gun. (It was an inheritance, and almost an heirloom, though not valuable.)

Has anyone else ever tried to transport a gun by airplane? Could it be done now? (I do get from the OP that this was in checked baggage and properly declared, just as I had to declare my rifle.)

I flew with a Marine Officer’s sword in 1994. It is an heirloom, and I asked to carry it onboard. I got the clearance from the pilot of the first flight, but since I changed planes and would have it in another airport approaching an unknown new crew, they made me check it. I had to buy a rifle case on the spot. If it had been a direct flight, I think I could have carried it on. (Headed to my first wedding, for the cake cutting, handed down from my father, etc… etc…, but it would still skewer someone).

The signs I saw in the airport today indicated a gun could be carried in checked baggage as long as it was unloaded and secured.

The hysterics, I don’t know about.

Anyone know the regs on shipping a firearm through UPS or FedEx? It seems it would be easier to ship the firearm a day or two before your flight. If it’s a hunting trip, you could purchase the ammunition at your final destination.

I went to a local government building and had a mini-leatherman tool on my keyring which I was forced to take off. They made some bug deal about my having this thing. The police around the metal detector have huge handguns but I’m going to take the building over with the 1/2" blade on my keychain? By the way, get one of those mini-leatherman tools, useful as can be.

As for the OP, wtf are you doing on a plane? Shouldn’t you be on an old cargo freighter fighting Nazis over some relic?

Shipping firearms through FedEx or UPS should be fine, as long as they are unloaded and properly secured and packaged. Best to call up the 800 number before you try it though.

Also, it is legal to have small arms ammunition in your checked luggage; it has to be securely boxed, for personal (sporting) use, and less than 5 kg per person. Individual airlines may choose to be more restrictive, though, so again call ahead of time.

A sword to cut a cake? You Marines certainly go that extra mile :slight_smile:

Heck, a year or so before 9/11, I was “busted” with my rock hammer (standard Estwing “Prospector’s Pick”) at the Little Rock airport. (Honestly, I meant to travel with it in my check-in bag, but we’d arrived at the airport right off of a field trip and I hadn’t remembered.) With the commotion it caused then, I’d hate to see what would happen now.

After I explained that I was a Geologist, had just done a field trip, here look at the rocks, etc., they let me keep the hammer but also made me check my bag as luggage. I didn’t miss my flight and I discovered the joy of travelling on an airplane without any carry-on (just me and a book they let me retrieve from the field pack)!