Officers at a Baltimore airport found a missile launcher packed inside a checked bag that belonged to an active-duty military service member who had just returned from Kuwait and wanted to bring the item home as a “souvenir,” according to an agency spokeswoman.
“Transportation Security Administration officers at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport detected a missile launcher in a man’s checked luggage early this morning, July 29,” the agency wrote in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
The Department of Homeland Security agency said it immediately contacted airport police and tracked down the passenger. The Texas man was taken in for questioning.
“He wanted to keep the missile launcher as a souvenir,” TSA said in the statement, adding military weapons are not allowed in either checked or carry-on bags.
TSA said the weapon was not a “live device.” It was confiscated and turned over to the state fire marshal for safe disposal.
The unnamed man was released and allowed to board his connecting flight home. TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein deadpanned, “Perhaps he should have picked up a keychain instead.”
It is not clear if the bag was first inspected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, another Department of Homeland Security entity that all passengers must pass through when re-entering the country, or at what point in the unnamed passenger’s travel process TSA discovered the item.
TSA frequently shares unusual items found in carry-on and checked baggage. Over the past year, officers have found more than 4,000 firearms in carry-on bags, as well as grenades, fireworks, and other items.
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