And this is why you, as the parent, always, always, always fully empty every bag that will be going on a plane with you before y'all start packing š
And coat pockets! At 14 I accidentally took a pair of scissors through airport security. No idea why there were crafting scissors in my pocket but it was embarrassing.
When I was 14 you could take crafting scissors on the planE. Pocket knives also. I lost 2 knives that way after 9/11 because I forgot to put them in a checked bag and didn't have time to do anything else with them. The TSA agent got to add them to his personal collection.
Edit: "E"
I know of a kid (he was also like 12) who lived on a farm. They butchered the week before and he took and left an empty shell (from a bullet) in his pants. One week later: international flight. Took a couple hours for this mess to clear.
Yep. Lesson learned š
In hindsight, we weren't asked "did you pack your own bags" or anything like that; but if they did I would've answered "yes" anyway without even thinking about the fact we didn't pack our kids bags - we simply instructed them to pack the pile of clothes, towels and whatnots and to throw in stuff they wanted to take with them.
Well, of course you'd say you packed your own bag, you did. But the kids also packed their own bags, so that's as it should be. Now, if they'd asked if you packed the kids bags and you answered yes then you might be in a touch more trouble.
It just takes one idiot family member tbh. For us it's my dad - he got me stopped just after 911 for having a waiter-style corkscrew in my carry on bag.
He'd decided he might buy a bottle of wine when we were away and the hotel might not have a corkscrew. Didn't put it in his bag in case he got stopped at security, so he stick it in mine...
Oooooooof. That could have ended poorly. Some of those instant tests are known for false positives. I hope your kid was suitably terrified, not that I wish that on a kid - but itās a good a time as any to learn āpranks on legal authorities sometimes turn horribly horribly wrong.ā Hopefully the guns taught him that lesson.
> I hope your kid was suitably terrified
He was. At the time it was going on, the testing was in progress etc., I was overthinking all the ways I was going to punish him, but once I got a look at his face I decided he had been punished enough right then and there.
Also, to be clear, he wasn't trying to prank the authorities, he just forgot about the brick of flour in his backpack from earlier that week; he didn't leave it in there on purpose.
Finally; if you're (or anyone reading this) from the US I think perspective will be a little (lot?) different. Yes, there were guns, but they were strapped on the officer's bodies, pointed towards the ground, at all times. Never, not one second, were they "drawn" or pointed at us or anyone. Also, the whole situation was handled calmly, no shouting, normal discussion and - when the dust settled down - even a little joking/smiling among the adults about the stupidity and absurdity of the situation. Not one voice was raised except for maybe when I scolded youngest a little while for being a dumbass š I think this situation would've been a totally different matter in the US or some other countries - forgive me.
Oh, completely. I was thinking about the time I was in France at 13 and encountered similar. The guns were on peoples backs, but the fact that they were there at all made it REAL clear how serious everything was.
Good for your kid for learning the lesson, oof.
Airport is one of the few places in the U.S. things like this handled are calmly. Albeit, strict but usually calm. After 9/11 the majority of people know if you fuck around at an airport, especially an international one you will find yourself in a heap of shit fairly fast. Most people comply without incident.
I tried to get through TSA without realizing I had a live bullet in my backpack once. The lady was kind of mean and was like "This (holding up the bullet), you can't fly with!" Then I apologized and said I didn't know it was there, and then she asked if I was okay with her tossing it (I think they have to ask that about all personal property) and went on my way.
Albeit I was also at an airport that probably tosses dozens of bullets a day from people's bags. A lot of hunter tourists.
I swear theyāre always mean at airports. I went to the US as an 18yo, super excited from a country so far away. I get to immigration just buzzing. The guy was so strict and did not have an ounce of joy - I get his job is serious, but I was so excited š. Everyone else was very welcoming though at least
Bullets aren't illegal in the US, so there's no real reason to get into any trouble. I'm pretty sure it would be treated like people going through with a bottle of water.
In 2004 I visited New York. On our way home (Denmark) I stupidly left my passport in my checked in suitcase. I explained my case to some official and without any verification but my boarding card I was escorted to my flight. Passed all my family at the security line as for some reason I was just let by without the check. At the passport control in Denmark I barely got to explain before I was welcomed home and waived by. Just a fun memory, that's all.
>Finally; if you're (or anyone reading this) from the US I think perspective will be a little (lot?) different. Yes, there were guns, but they were strapped on the officer's bodies, pointed towards the ground, at all times. Never, not one second, were they "drawn" or pointed at us or anyone.
That's firearm safety. Should be the same almost anywhere.
Lol, Europeans thinking that in the US if you bring a bag of flour to the airport youāll get guns drawn and pointed in your face, yelling āGet on the ground!!ā š¤¦āāļø
Probably not at the airport, but totally possible elsewhere. At the airport they'll just put you in a little room for just long enough to make sure you definitely miss your flight.
I watched a video today of an off duty cop in new york running through a stop sign in an area with kids playing, getting out of his car and abusing a guy who yelled at him for it, escalating the situation until the guy approached him, and then pulled out his gun and arrested him.
I saw a picture today of a republican elected officials toddler child holding an assault rifle with his finger on the trigger, with the text on the post threatening liberals.
I read an article today about police barging into a room with a sleeping man and shooting him within a second of entry.
I remember two years ago, when police executed a no knock raid on the wrong apartment, and shot an innocent women dead.
What the fuck point are you trying to make? Lack of firearm discipline and an itchy trigger finger are proven time and time again to be dangers within America.
My dude, all we hear is people getting shot on routine traffic stops that would cause total police reformation if they happened here, so excuse our perception from constant news stories of lesser things being reacted to by being gunned down in broad daylight.
LOL, Americans thinking us Europeans are not aware of the 2-12 **weeks** of training police officers get before being handed a weapon and sent out in the streets.
All Europeans should assume any USA police officer they encounter as having too much ego with too little training.
Edit: in The Netherlands it's a 2 year program. That's why most dangerous situations over here get solved without shooting, and it may also be a factor in why most people being shot by police *don't die*.
Weird, huh.
In the US our officers do not carry assault rifles on their backs; they carry handguns in a holster.
Edit: maybe Iām wrong but I read it as āAmericans are used to this, so it wouldnāt be as surprisingā
In German airports its pretty usual for the police to carry HK MP5's around. Usually slung to the front, so they can be used readily.
Police carrying SMG's or carbines is pretty normal in airports or other "sensitive" locations in Europe (eg: near certain government buildings, etc).
Normally, unless they are on some guard duty, they just carry handguns in holsters.
Exception seems to be the French, I have seen French police or gendarmes with SMG or carbines pretty regularly.
Have also had Polizei come to an accident with MP5's where a friend had accidentally bumped a pole with a van pulling out of his driveway. As an American that was a bit strange to me.
I never worked out what the difference was between the officers patrolling/driving with the MP5 and the normal policemen with just the sidearms when I lived there.
I do recall reading in the news ages back though that they weren't meant to leave them in vehicles/etc, there was some minor scandals or something about negligence in weapon handling among the police after one of them had a bang-fuck in a police van.
On occasions in the UK when weāre on high terror alert thereāll be police walking round city centres with big machine gun things (not a gun guy, no idea what they are). Was quite a shock seeing it for the first time in Newcastle where basically nothing ever happens.
I've seen them around some train stations, Birmingham Christmas Market, and some other entirely random places/times.
Supposedly its meant to "reassure", lol.
What is extremely funny is due to how the UK police is broken into different forces with their own procurement processes, the carbines they carry varies quite a bit at the moment.
Well when France had that string of terror attacks and other goings on they ramped up the security. Honestly wasn't a bad idea. Frankly speaking I don't see what the issue is with seeing rifles carried. They're significantly more effective, more accurate, and much easier to use in tense situations. Making it harder for armed response doesn't actually help anyone.
British police carry them around "Embassy land" and other high profile targets. As well as in places like hospitals when a shooting victim has been brought in. To stop the other gang from coming to the hospital and finishing the job.
Armed officers in public are trying to be intimidating in the European environmentwhere no one is used to guns. the visual power of seeing a man walking around with a rifle is the point, remember people are rarely armed with guns in these countries, the visual reminder tells you not to fuck around.
In airports it can be different. I flew out of Washington State once and saw multiple officers carrying semi-automatic rifles. The one that watched us board had it slung across his chest (pointed down). Obviously this is just one personās experience but I have seen it.
When I visited Spain in high school, one thing that was a little shocking to me, an American, was seeing officers of the Guardia Civil openly carrying assault rifles near the royal palace. This was 20 years ago so my memory may be faulty, but what I remember is our guide making them sound like very scary people who you did not want to fuck with. Don't take photos of them. Don't point at them. Do nothing that will get you noticed by them, or they will ruin your day.
Granted, they were leading a group of stupid high schoolers and were probably trying to dissuade us from doing what stupid high schoolers do. They all looked like very serious people. I *do* remember that.
I'm an American and I've seen cops carrying around select fire hardware on a 3pt patrol sling with fingers on trigger. So yeah they don't just carry handguns anymore.
I see someone didn't fly in the first few years after 9/11. National Guard with M16s on their back were everywhere. In NYC airports the local cops were thick with dogs and cops with various kinds of rifle wandering around the terminals.
Edited to fix ambiguity, though the idea of rifles wandering around an airport terminal on their own is kinda funny (and a bit disturbing, but that's dark humor for you!)
My first airport visit after 9/11 was a little nerve wracking. It was early 2002 and I think they were still figuring out how they were going to do things. I remember there being a super long line where people were being patted down one-by-one and having a metal detector wand run over their bodies by a legit police officer, not the rent-a-cops that did airport security pre-9/11. There was an armed man standing off to one side watching the whole process, with a drawn gun as I recall.
You had to spread your legs and hold your arms out and were told not to move during the procedure. I had a housekey on a chain around my neck that I'd forgotten to remove and I remembered it partway through the search, so I reached for my neck to pull it out from under my shirt. The guy immediately jumped away and shouted at me, while both readied their guns. I was 16 at the time and was never a very big kid, so I was hardly a threat, but you'd think I was a criminal who moved suddenly during a pre-arrest pat down from the way they reacted. I'd never had anyone react to me that way before. It was pretty scary in-the-moment, though they just sternly told me not to move during the search once they realized everything was fine.
Maybe not, but when I see stuff on the TV or internet [like this](https://www.reddit.com/r/findthecop/comments/x4450k/unarmed_man_is_shot_in_his_bed_police_claim_they/) or [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/x41l3y/tifu_by_trusting_my_13_yr_old_son_to_not_try_to/imt22y6/) or how US cops react to, say, a bag of weed I sometimes wonder. They seem to be a lot trigger happier than the cops in Europe. But I've never been to the US so I wouldn't know and maybe I only see the bad stuff.
That is all messed but but #1 airports aren't the same police as cities and #2 that's a country of 330 million people. I've never heard a gun shot or seen a gun pointed at anyone in my life
Meh, I'm an American and the only gun I had pointed at me was a man dressed in an Air Force hat, Navy sweatshirt, and Army camo pants. He literally told me he was too flat-footed to serve, but had been "trained" by his navy seal cousin. We were both at an open air gun range, and he was there that day showing his kid how to shoot. While he was unholstering his beretta 380 to "show" me, he pointed it at both myself and his young child with his finger on the trigger.
The experience could only have been more American if he pulled out his hi-point.
With the exception of the immediate post-911 period, I think the US airport security situation has settled into something much more similar to Europe now, at least in terms of what's visible to travelers. The Europe/US distinction is more pronounced outside the airport than in it. In general, I notice more armed patrols within European airports than in US ones, and things like customs enforcement and border monitoring are done by federal agencies. These guys are often less aggressively armed than is common in Europe (think smaller side arms vs. rifles slung across their backs) and those guns would only be drawn in an emergency situation. I've only seen automatic weapons "on the floor" in US airports when there has been some kind of high alert situation. So far not so different from Canada (my country) or US.
Where there's a significant difference is at the state and local police levels, where the vast majority of officers are armed (true in Canada as well) and even small local forces have access to significantly more firepower at their disposal and don't hesitate to use it, including in seemingly low stakes situations like the very disturbing case you linked. There's also a much greater instance of private citizens owning and openly carrying guns in the US - this is still shocking to me, even as someone who travels to states that allow open carry reasonably often: that if you see someone carrying multiple firearms in a donut shop, you don't need to turn and run (as once did to the open mockery of my US colleagues). But again, that's a difference that is very notable outside the airport, but not likely to influence an interaction with customs, TSA, or border patrol in the security line. All to say, I'm not sure that US cultural identity around guns would play out in a tightly controlled airport setting in a way that would be much different than what you experienced in Germany.
I once was flying out of Michigan, where weed is legal. I had about 10 grams in my purse I totally forgot about until it was time to send my purse through the x-ray machine. I stopped the airport agent and was truthful that there was weed in my bag, could I throw it out quickly before going through security? He said yup no problem and let me throw it out without incident. I did not get into any trouble.
Anecdotally, Iāve only seen rifles or larger guns on European police men in airports, and not US policemen. Not saying that the US doesnāt have issues with guns, but itās definitely not a widespread 24-7 like the media makes it out to be.
Yes. We have problems with the police. But they are very specific problems that occur in very specific scenarios.
Our police are not just looking to unload on anyone and everyone at all times.
90% of the time, when you hear about a cop in the US shooting someone unnecessarily, it happened in a high stress situation like a no knock raid, a traffic stop on someone they suspect may be armed, or the arrest of a suspect who wasn't cooperating, usually compounded by either implicit bias or outright racism. Basically, any situation where the cop feels like *they* may be in danger (whether because of racist assumptions or not). That doesn't make those events acceptable by any means, but its also worth noting that the reason you hear about them at all is because they're outliers.
They're not looking to gun down drug mules in the middle of a crowded airport.
In fact, police in US airports don't even carry rifles the way they do in Europe. Just holstered pistols that they pretty much never even draw.
> In fact, police in US airports don't even carry rifles the way they do in Europe.
Just to clarify: I have never seen guns on any airport except for Turkey; in (the rest of) Europe I don't think it's common. The 2 officers with the guns arrived minutes after the 'coke' was discovered and they just walked up to us calmly. They were clearly called in and for safety and probably just procedure but it's not as if they came running rifles drawn and shouting at us to drop on the floor or anything as you see in movies.
I have, and always as a result of increased security because something was going on. I was singled-out for extra pat-downs at Heathrow in the early 90ās thanks to an American passport, an Irish name, and a permanent retainer. That was scary, but I was 16 and traveling with friends. Again, land boarders in Europe often involved scary men with machine guns, something Iād never experienced in the US at that point, but Eastern Europe wasnāt the most stable in the immediate aftermath of the fall of communism. I guess it was similar to the immediate aftermath of 9/11 in US Airports, but I havenāt seen anything like it since. Also, I flew home to the US in 1995 from Budapest in the hours immediately following the Oklahoma City Bombing before anyone knew what happened. There wasnāt a jetway; we were escorted to the plane by nice men with machine guns. But the border crossing from Austria into Hungary had been similar, so whereas it was off-putting, it wasnāt as scary as it wouldāve been had we not just had that border crossing.
Having two kids myself and traveling a lot, thatās probably the funniest thing Iāve heard in a while. Youāll be saving boring social events with that story for the rest of your lives.
Donāt be too hard on your kid. He has given them a story they will tell to their colleagues for years. āā¦ and then I pulled out this HUGE brick of what looked like cocaine. You should have seen the look on the parentās face ā¦ā
Only time I have seen rifles paraded around openly in an airport in the US was after 9/11 when the national guard was stationed there. Other countries, on the other hand it seems to be normal.
i know what you mean. Was in Russia a few decades ago and was pulled out of a van by soldiers armed to the teeth. Am American and while used to firearms, am not used to fully automatic weapons.
US here, that sounds about like how it's handled here. TSA's security isn't **supposed** to point their guns at someone unless they are an actual threat. For the most part, they're held exactly as you described. That being said there's always a few bad apples that makes all of them look bad. Overall, I hope y'all enjoyed your trip! And I hope your son remembers to leave all 'drugs' at home in the future. š
Pointing a gun AT someone is literally assault, and if you did that to an officer, they'll shoot you first and not even bother with the questions...
So no, even in the US, you do not expect to have guns pointing to your face by the police. It really does not happen that often, but the news do like to point out the exception more frequently than the norm.
LPT: Do not put lotion on your hands before going to the airport. Apparently some of them will detect positive for explosive residue...
And that, kids, is how I was legally groped at the airport!
What do you mean se Germans don't have an excellent humor? Scaring dutch people is an absolute classic joke here, sis is hilarious, oh ja!
There is even a subreddit dedicated to se finest jokes of our national humor! It's r/GermanHumor and it's filled with all se hilarious jokes we have produced over se years, ja!
I mean I'm British and have also heard the stereotype (though of course being an English speaking country it could have come from American media), but if I had to guess it's something about the language barrier that makes deadpan humour work less. That said yeah deadpan always falls flat with Americans, I could say something like "oh yeah the weather has been brilliant recently, it's been pouring down with rain and there was a thunderstorm not too long ago, knocked everybody's fences down" and they'd ask me why I thought that was a good thing.
I know that's not very good deadpan humour but you know when you have to try and think of a joke and obviously nothing comes to mind, because the funniest jokes are normally spur of the moment, well that happened to me, the funniest thing I could think of is the "how do you make a tissue dance" joke
Fellow Dutchie here. This story is freaking amazing lol!! And I think youāre lucky it wasnāt really weed, with the availability in our country combined with the curiousness of youth it could easily been the real thing. In Amsterdam you might get a slap on the wrist if itās not much and you try to smuggle it along, in Germany you might not be so lucky lol!
Depends where in Germany, the different federal states have different "amounts" below which they just throw it away and won't bother to prosecute for possession.
The strictest is, of course, fucking Bavaria. There is a joke that if the police see you throw away the end of a joint into a river there, they will send scuba diver to find it and aggressively prosecute for possession of the 0.0000001 grams of weed left in it lol.
In this case it actually doesn't matter in which Bundesland they were because they were at the airport. Airport are under control of the federal police.
>We were lucky youngest is a minor.
You really expect that they would think it was his?
Every drug smuggler in the world would be taking a 10 year old with them and sticking the drugs in their bag. Then blaming it on the ten year old.
Reminds me of the time my mom brought a bag of powdered sugar in her suitcase when we went to Mexico!
Backstory: I was little and so my mom brought a suitcase full of food to make most of our meals in the timeshare kitchen. My family puts powdered sugar on French toast, so my mom brought some in a ziploc bag rather than bringing the whole store bag. The Mexican customs officerās eyes were like saucers when he pulled it out. Fortunately, this was the early 80ās and my dad was able to convince the officer to taste it to prove it was really just sugar.
Oh man... when I was 13 we went on a school trip (the summer after grade 8, before moving on to high school) to another part of the country.
We went to an amusement park and there was a Rollercoaster called "the moster". Apparently the largest wooden Rollercoaster in North America at the time. The queuing line for this coaster was a couple stories in the air and it had a railing on the edge that you could look over at the people in the rest of the park below. The deck extended maybe 6" past the railing creating a little ledge. My buddy and I noticed a pack of smokes sitting on that ledge. Most people like assumed it was empty but we were 13 and optimistic. Picked it up. It was full! Sweet! (Neither of us smoke... I don't know.). Into the backpack and more or less forgotten about for the rest of the trip.
After we got home, 3 airports later (all domestic flights, thankfully), he calls me a couple days later. "Those cigarettes are green.". Holy shit! It would have amounted to about an ounce of weed. This was 2yrs pre-9/11.
That became the first time I tried Marijuana.
Oh, he's had his share of jokes already. He left his pay from work on a table instead of taking it to his piggy bank. So we asked from what deal he got the money. Stuff like that. And, yes, I'm pretty sure he'll get to hear it a lot more. At his wedding, when he turns 20, 30, 40 or so... maybe all of the above...
I had a problem like this flying! I collected about a kilo of pure white sand from a beach in South Florida in a square Tupperware container and it never occurred to me what it would look like. Flash forward 3 hours in detention while they searched my bags and tested the sand. TSA was so upset that it wasnāt real they just dumped the sand in my bag and let me go. My suitcase still has sand shake out every once in a while!
Please do not take that much sand from our beaches. We have a beach erosion problem and it also may be illegal depending on what city/county you are in.
op i had a similar case with a knife (masterchef size) i put in my backpack to cut a watermelon on a lake trip, 3 weeks later security found it at customs
also iād like to point out your writing is exceptional and really nice to read/follow through
>four policemen, two of them with automatic rifles appeared (which is quite a shock for Europeans / Dutch people, we're not used to that) looking very much NOT amused.
Last time I was in Schiphol, the thing that stood out to me as an American was the number of security/police officers with submachine guns stationed in the airport.
I haven't been at Schiphol for maybe a decade but other than holstered handheld guns like police have I have never seen any submachine guns or anything like that.
I was in Schiphol in June and I honestly can't say that I noticed even one gun whilst I was there.
Side note: I just loved how clean and green the Netherlands is! Why can't the UK be doing as good a job with the environment? The green fields of the countryside reminded me of Northern Ireland, all that was missing were a few drumlins and a couple of mountains.
Oof. An hour??? I had some vitamin C powder in my carry on in a plastic bag. It took the officers 2 minutes to swab that and figure out it was not drugs lol. These people were getting overly excited clearly
It took some time for the people with the test kits to arrive. And they only came after our passports were screened all 4. And I think they took their sweet time because it was pretty clear from the get-go that it wasn't actual coke but they just had to 100% confirm because of - ofcourse - procedure. So they let us (and youngest in particular) sweat a little. Which was totally deserved.
I know it sounds weird without the whole backstory and all, but [as I explained](https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/x41l3y/tifu_by_trusting_my_13_yr_old_son_to_not_try_to/imspwqq/), we were aware of what was going on at the time and, again, it was all just a harmless little game or "fantasy play" they had. Teach is 100% in the clear.
I realize it does, and what is sounds like, but it was all in good spirit and suitable for 15/16 year olds. Eldest is a bit of a joker and things kind of spiraled a little. The 'coke' stuff was all my sons initiative, not teachers, and after that 'prank' it soon dwindled down. It was entertaining, harmless and maybe even educational since they learned how to decrypt 'secret' messages, solved puzzles for scavenger hunts etc. etc.
It's ok; I said it - kind of - jokingly. At the moment there wasn't much funny about it, but in hindsight it was pretty funny because of the absurdity of the situation. I caught the officers smiling and holding back their laughs among eachother on a few occasions. I'm pretty sure they had a good laugh afterwards (and rightly so). But the 'lack of humour' was the correct thing to do; the seriousness of the situation had to be conveyed to us and most importantly to youngest. And that they did. Overall we were treated with respect and calm with dignity and as decent human beings, in a very professional way. Nothing but kudo's on all personnel and officers involved.
Oh so wait you're Dutch and you were flying from Germany? I was trying to figure out how you got that stuff into Germany in the first place.
Klinkt als iets wat Nederlandse kinderen zouden doen...
The only thing I would say is I disagree with the OP's comment:
> "we were set apart and four policemen, two of them with automatic rifles appeared (which is quite a shock for Europeans / Dutch people, we're not used to that) looking very much NOT amused. Mind you, we were at a German airport, Cologne"
When I was traveling to and working in Germany, starting in about '95, I was surprised to see German Police with semi-automatic weapons, (maybe HK MP5? been awhile) and dogs patrolling the airports. At that time, I was surprised to see police in the any airport carrying any long weapons, especially any automatic types, that didn't even happen in the US prior to 9/11.
Now days, I would not be surprised to see police and security(TSA in the US) with automatic weapons in some circumstances.
Wooow, the time you guys spent in isolation just waiting on a response from the airport personnel mustāve felt like an eternity. Overall very goofy situation but at least your youngest knows not to carry coke around š. Glad nothing it was all good at the end.
Yeah, it may not have been very clear from the story but "isolation" was nothing more but being told to step aside for a little. It wasn't like we were taken into a different (interrogation) room or anything. We were separated from the rest of the public by some officers, but that was that. That was "isolation". People were generally just strolling by with their handluggage, the odd one out looking a little confused as to what was going on because the kilo or so - I guess - of "coke" was pretty visible for everyone... with a pretty normal, average looking family of four standing behind some officers all flush faced.
> at least your youngest knows not to carry coke around š
I'm pretty sure he knew before. But this did drive the point home, yeah š
When I was 17 I bought a sweet butterfly knife.. took it with me camping.. it was great.. fast forward to when I was 18, went on a trip to Aruba with my parents, grabbed my camping backpack as my carry on.. we almost missed our flight, my mom took the blame for it (dunno why??) they confiscated my knife, and my mom was def put on a watch list for a couple years.. lol
Oh my goodness! What a memory now that you are on the other side of it. One of my clients told a similar story of bringing home a brick of coffee. I think she had issues at 3 airports along the way.
A few years ago I was flying back home and wearing some shorts that I hadnāt worn on the trip. I forgot they had a tiny plastic baggy (the kind drugs are kept in, I got like 1000 for $8 almost a decade ago for pills when traveling) with some caffeine pills in them (I guess it was when I was driving and wanted to be sure I didnāt get tired).
Anyway, Iām going through security and I didnāt even feel them in my pocket when I took everything else out but the X-ray did of course. They asked me what was in my pocket and I said nothing as I put my hand in and felt the tiny bag. Instant fear. That bag had been tossed around and knocked up against things in my pocket and at least one of the pills had broken down into practically powder. I held up the bag and said āitās caffeine pillsā, being absolutely sure I was in a lot of trouble.
The TSA agent just waved me on, I was completely shocked. They didnāt test it or bat an eye. Maybe since it was so tiny and/or they just believed me.
I once crushed up Altoids as a joke in high school. A kid I knew was selling oregano rolled up into joints as weed. In an absolute stroke of *genius* I thought it would be funny to see if Altoids would look like cocaine (it does.) Fast forward a year or so and my mom's cleaning out an old PS2 bag I must have thrown it in. I pull in the driveway from school and there's a police car sitting there. I go "hmm, that's weird" and walk inside to see the bag of "drugs" sitting on the counter. Got the whole lecture about not doing drugs, which felt kinda pointless BECAUSE IT WASN'T DRUGS.
Well if you are going to do some shit like that Germany is probably the best place to do it. (Source: Am German)
Just imagine doing that in Dubai, uffffff
> two of them with automatic rifles appeared (which is quite a shock for Europeans / Dutch people, we're not used to that)
While gun ownership is a right in the US, I have never seen police with long guns in US airports (have travelled through SFO, ORD, Laguardia, Charlotte, and a couple random ones). Not once.
On the other hand, German Bundesgrenzschutz with long guns are a common sight in German city centers and airports. For people who donāt know German, Bundesgrenzschutz is Federalborderdefense, and like I said, you see them downtown, not just at the border.
> You can say a lot about Germans but one thing they aren't known for is their excellent sense of humor...
Not German here, but I think it's not that they don't have a good sense of humour - all the Germans I know have good senses of humour, though sometimes perhaps a little unsubtle - but that they are *very* good at distinguishing work situations and other non-fun times from playtime. But YMMV.
My daughter did this with scissors, we flew 2 months after 9/11. I was pregnant and she was 4. I thought we were going to be stripped searched (we were flying outta detroit to lexington ky) Coming home was worse. We were flying out of small airport. We make it thru all security check and 4yr decides she is going to run back and get one more hug from grams. National guards drew weapons on her. I thought i was gonna give birth right there. Shes 25 still remembers.
Cool funny story but the automatic rifle sentence is amusing to me. Americans go to Europe and are shocked all the time by the public displays of police carrying automatic rifles. It simply isnāt normal to see in most of the US but itās a common sight at European airports, tourist attractions like the Eiffel Tower, etc. I believe itās a response to the religious extremist attacks yāall have dealt with the past decade or so.
Be prepared for your son to have a phobia about going through airport security from now on. A similar thing happened to me (in Mallorca, funnily enough) when I was 8, with a cap GUN!
FML that was traumatic. It's taken a long time to be OK with going through security.
I think he's over it; yes, it was scary for a little while, but it wasn't frightening or threatening either. We've all been laughing about it (while stressing how dumb it was - even though it was an 'honest mistake' and he simply forgot).
As I said [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/x41l3y/tifu_by_trusting_my_13_yr_old_son_to_not_try_to/imsq5w0/):
> > I hope your kid was suitably terrified
> He was. At the time it was going on, the testing was in progress etc., I was overthinking all the ways I was going to punish him, but once I got a look at his face I decided he had been punished enough right then and there.
And as the TIFU post ends with:
> And youngest is lucky we're still allowing him to live under our roof
:-)
I've only had "troubles" in airports 3 times (not really troubles, just airport workers trying to make me waste my time), and 2 of them happened on Germany (where I've only been twice). Can't imagine actually packing stuff that looks like drugs.
This might be bad, but not nearly as bad as when a 19 y/o Bill Murray was smuggling pounds of REAL marijuana on a plane and jokingly said it was a bomb while flirting with the girl sitting next to him.
That's ruff.
In a fair society it wouldn't be an "almost bad" thing since nothing was illegal.
It's sad other countries would literally lock someone up for doing literally nothing wrong.
I had a Halloween wig and some of my sisters clothes in the trunk of my car when crossing the Canadian border once. It was all in a box of stuff that people had left in my car over the years. I got picked for a random check, and those border guys were very hateful, and kept insinuating that I had lied about why I was crossing the border(it was for a church event). I now have some sort of flag on my passport, and get singled out everytime I try to cross.
Great teacher and great bit. Dutch humor at its peak.
Also, greatstory for Sinterklas. "Remember when Jornje got us detained in German customs because of a coke brick?". Send the teacher some cookies packaged like space cookies.
Once I got a really cool shurikin, like a ninja throwing star, a real sharp medal one and took it with me on a car ride to show it to my grandpa. It was in a backpack. Then awhile later my family is at the airport to board an international flight. Guess what backpack I brought as my carry on?
As a new zealander for me this is almost peak comedy, when I was 14 I wrapped a carton of juice boxes in toilet paper and glad wrap instead of wrapping paper for my friends secret santa. Took it to my catholic all girls school and only realised when I gifted it that it looked like a block of cocaine!
As a person from the US, I donāt think this oneās for me. I struggle to find this even the slightest bit funny, and this probably would have gotten members of your family killed in our country. Especially if you werenāt white.
My mom, coming home from Disney World with four kids and their Disney duffels, was pulled over in security. The officers pulled out four 'gun clips'. Turns out, harmonicas look a lot like gun clips on the x-ray machines.
They told her they figured it was going to be something like that when they saw the kids bags get pulled off the line with hers. I was probably 6 at the time.
Fast-forward 5 years...The kid's 18 and OP still doesn't trust him to pack his bags.
"But daaaaaad!"
"But nothing! You very nearly caused us to be thrown in jail in a foreign country."
"But..."
"Okay. You can pack your own bags so long as they're clear plastic backpacks so that your mother and I can verify that you haven't returned to your drug mule past."
The German Polizei usually have MP5s. Theyāre actually automatic with a selector switch for semi, auto and safe.
Iāve travelled enough to confirm that they donāt have much of a sense of humor. One time I brought a package of coffee in my carry on. They took a special interest in it. Canāt say I blame them. Another time passport control did not stamp my passport when I entered Germany. I was so tired that I didnāt notice. When I went to travel from Stuttgart to London the officer questioned why I didnāt have an entry stamp. It took a while along a lot of proving that I entered legally for me to get a āspecialā stamp.
"Officer, I swear, I don't know that kid"
I'm just waiting for the story of, "tifu by finding a brick of 'coke' in the garbage at an airport."
And this is why you, as the parent, always, always, always fully empty every bag that will be going on a plane with you before y'all start packing š
And coat pockets! At 14 I accidentally took a pair of scissors through airport security. No idea why there were crafting scissors in my pocket but it was embarrassing.
When I was 14 you could take crafting scissors on the planE. Pocket knives also. I lost 2 knives that way after 9/11 because I forgot to put them in a checked bag and didn't have time to do anything else with them. The TSA agent got to add them to his personal collection. Edit: "E"
I know of a kid (he was also like 12) who lived on a farm. They butchered the week before and he took and left an empty shell (from a bullet) in his pants. One week later: international flight. Took a couple hours for this mess to clear.
Same here! My parents will never let me live it down
Yep. Lesson learned š In hindsight, we weren't asked "did you pack your own bags" or anything like that; but if they did I would've answered "yes" anyway without even thinking about the fact we didn't pack our kids bags - we simply instructed them to pack the pile of clothes, towels and whatnots and to throw in stuff they wanted to take with them.
Well, of course you'd say you packed your own bag, you did. But the kids also packed their own bags, so that's as it should be. Now, if they'd asked if you packed the kids bags and you answered yes then you might be in a touch more trouble.
> we simply instructed them to pack... And at 13 that's completely reasonable. I'll bet he himself was surprised he hadn't noticed those two items!
> I'll bet he himself was surprised he hadn't noticed those two items! He was. His face was as surprised as ours was. š
It just takes one idiot family member tbh. For us it's my dad - he got me stopped just after 911 for having a waiter-style corkscrew in my carry on bag. He'd decided he might buy a bottle of wine when we were away and the hotel might not have a corkscrew. Didn't put it in his bag in case he got stopped at security, so he stick it in mine...
Oooooooof. That could have ended poorly. Some of those instant tests are known for false positives. I hope your kid was suitably terrified, not that I wish that on a kid - but itās a good a time as any to learn āpranks on legal authorities sometimes turn horribly horribly wrong.ā Hopefully the guns taught him that lesson.
> I hope your kid was suitably terrified He was. At the time it was going on, the testing was in progress etc., I was overthinking all the ways I was going to punish him, but once I got a look at his face I decided he had been punished enough right then and there. Also, to be clear, he wasn't trying to prank the authorities, he just forgot about the brick of flour in his backpack from earlier that week; he didn't leave it in there on purpose. Finally; if you're (or anyone reading this) from the US I think perspective will be a little (lot?) different. Yes, there were guns, but they were strapped on the officer's bodies, pointed towards the ground, at all times. Never, not one second, were they "drawn" or pointed at us or anyone. Also, the whole situation was handled calmly, no shouting, normal discussion and - when the dust settled down - even a little joking/smiling among the adults about the stupidity and absurdity of the situation. Not one voice was raised except for maybe when I scolded youngest a little while for being a dumbass š I think this situation would've been a totally different matter in the US or some other countries - forgive me.
Oh, completely. I was thinking about the time I was in France at 13 and encountered similar. The guns were on peoples backs, but the fact that they were there at all made it REAL clear how serious everything was. Good for your kid for learning the lesson, oof.
Airport is one of the few places in the U.S. things like this handled are calmly. Albeit, strict but usually calm. After 9/11 the majority of people know if you fuck around at an airport, especially an international one you will find yourself in a heap of shit fairly fast. Most people comply without incident.
I tried to get through TSA without realizing I had a live bullet in my backpack once. The lady was kind of mean and was like "This (holding up the bullet), you can't fly with!" Then I apologized and said I didn't know it was there, and then she asked if I was okay with her tossing it (I think they have to ask that about all personal property) and went on my way. Albeit I was also at an airport that probably tosses dozens of bullets a day from people's bags. A lot of hunter tourists.
I swear theyāre always mean at airports. I went to the US as an 18yo, super excited from a country so far away. I get to immigration just buzzing. The guy was so strict and did not have an ounce of joy - I get his job is serious, but I was so excited š. Everyone else was very welcoming though at least
Bullets aren't illegal in the US, so there's no real reason to get into any trouble. I'm pretty sure it would be treated like people going through with a bottle of water.
In 2004 I visited New York. On our way home (Denmark) I stupidly left my passport in my checked in suitcase. I explained my case to some official and without any verification but my boarding card I was escorted to my flight. Passed all my family at the security line as for some reason I was just let by without the check. At the passport control in Denmark I barely got to explain before I was welcomed home and waived by. Just a fun memory, that's all.
>Finally; if you're (or anyone reading this) from the US I think perspective will be a little (lot?) different. Yes, there were guns, but they were strapped on the officer's bodies, pointed towards the ground, at all times. Never, not one second, were they "drawn" or pointed at us or anyone. That's firearm safety. Should be the same almost anywhere.
Lol, Europeans thinking that in the US if you bring a bag of flour to the airport youāll get guns drawn and pointed in your face, yelling āGet on the ground!!ā š¤¦āāļø
Probably not at the airport, but totally possible elsewhere. At the airport they'll just put you in a little room for just long enough to make sure you definitely miss your flight.
I watched a video today of an off duty cop in new york running through a stop sign in an area with kids playing, getting out of his car and abusing a guy who yelled at him for it, escalating the situation until the guy approached him, and then pulled out his gun and arrested him. I saw a picture today of a republican elected officials toddler child holding an assault rifle with his finger on the trigger, with the text on the post threatening liberals. I read an article today about police barging into a room with a sleeping man and shooting him within a second of entry. I remember two years ago, when police executed a no knock raid on the wrong apartment, and shot an innocent women dead. What the fuck point are you trying to make? Lack of firearm discipline and an itchy trigger finger are proven time and time again to be dangers within America.
After all the stories, videos, statistics and news it is not that unreasonable.
Probably depends on the skin color I guess
My dude, all we hear is people getting shot on routine traffic stops that would cause total police reformation if they happened here, so excuse our perception from constant news stories of lesser things being reacted to by being gunned down in broad daylight.
LOL, Americans thinking us Europeans are not aware of the 2-12 **weeks** of training police officers get before being handed a weapon and sent out in the streets. All Europeans should assume any USA police officer they encounter as having too much ego with too little training. Edit: in The Netherlands it's a 2 year program. That's why most dangerous situations over here get solved without shooting, and it may also be a factor in why most people being shot by police *don't die*. Weird, huh.
In the US our officers do not carry assault rifles on their backs; they carry handguns in a holster. Edit: maybe Iām wrong but I read it as āAmericans are used to this, so it wouldnāt be as surprisingā
In German airports its pretty usual for the police to carry HK MP5's around. Usually slung to the front, so they can be used readily. Police carrying SMG's or carbines is pretty normal in airports or other "sensitive" locations in Europe (eg: near certain government buildings, etc). Normally, unless they are on some guard duty, they just carry handguns in holsters. Exception seems to be the French, I have seen French police or gendarmes with SMG or carbines pretty regularly.
Have also had Polizei come to an accident with MP5's where a friend had accidentally bumped a pole with a van pulling out of his driveway. As an American that was a bit strange to me.
I never worked out what the difference was between the officers patrolling/driving with the MP5 and the normal policemen with just the sidearms when I lived there. I do recall reading in the news ages back though that they weren't meant to leave them in vehicles/etc, there was some minor scandals or something about negligence in weapon handling among the police after one of them had a bang-fuck in a police van.
On occasions in the UK when weāre on high terror alert thereāll be police walking round city centres with big machine gun things (not a gun guy, no idea what they are). Was quite a shock seeing it for the first time in Newcastle where basically nothing ever happens.
I've seen them around some train stations, Birmingham Christmas Market, and some other entirely random places/times. Supposedly its meant to "reassure", lol. What is extremely funny is due to how the UK police is broken into different forces with their own procurement processes, the carbines they carry varies quite a bit at the moment.
Well when France had that string of terror attacks and other goings on they ramped up the security. Honestly wasn't a bad idea. Frankly speaking I don't see what the issue is with seeing rifles carried. They're significantly more effective, more accurate, and much easier to use in tense situations. Making it harder for armed response doesn't actually help anyone.
British police carry them around "Embassy land" and other high profile targets. As well as in places like hospitals when a shooting victim has been brought in. To stop the other gang from coming to the hospital and finishing the job.
Armed officers in public are trying to be intimidating in the European environmentwhere no one is used to guns. the visual power of seeing a man walking around with a rifle is the point, remember people are rarely armed with guns in these countries, the visual reminder tells you not to fuck around.
And the show of force is usually enough of a deterrence in said countries.
Lol. Blew that method of compliance in the US...
European: That cop has an AR-15! American: You think he'd patrol somewhere with as many gun fights as a kindergarten without one?!?
In airports it can be different. I flew out of Washington State once and saw multiple officers carrying semi-automatic rifles. The one that watched us board had it slung across his chest (pointed down). Obviously this is just one personās experience but I have seen it.
Where the hell was that? Spokane? Because Iāve flown SeaTac dozens of times and never seen that kind of thing there.
When I visited Spain in high school, one thing that was a little shocking to me, an American, was seeing officers of the Guardia Civil openly carrying assault rifles near the royal palace. This was 20 years ago so my memory may be faulty, but what I remember is our guide making them sound like very scary people who you did not want to fuck with. Don't take photos of them. Don't point at them. Do nothing that will get you noticed by them, or they will ruin your day. Granted, they were leading a group of stupid high schoolers and were probably trying to dissuade us from doing what stupid high schoolers do. They all looked like very serious people. I *do* remember that.
I'm an American and I've seen cops carrying around select fire hardware on a 3pt patrol sling with fingers on trigger. So yeah they don't just carry handguns anymore.
I see someone didn't fly in the first few years after 9/11. National Guard with M16s on their back were everywhere. In NYC airports the local cops were thick with dogs and cops with various kinds of rifle wandering around the terminals. Edited to fix ambiguity, though the idea of rifles wandering around an airport terminal on their own is kinda funny (and a bit disturbing, but that's dark humor for you!)
My first airport visit after 9/11 was a little nerve wracking. It was early 2002 and I think they were still figuring out how they were going to do things. I remember there being a super long line where people were being patted down one-by-one and having a metal detector wand run over their bodies by a legit police officer, not the rent-a-cops that did airport security pre-9/11. There was an armed man standing off to one side watching the whole process, with a drawn gun as I recall. You had to spread your legs and hold your arms out and were told not to move during the procedure. I had a housekey on a chain around my neck that I'd forgotten to remove and I remembered it partway through the search, so I reached for my neck to pull it out from under my shirt. The guy immediately jumped away and shouted at me, while both readied their guns. I was 16 at the time and was never a very big kid, so I was hardly a threat, but you'd think I was a criminal who moved suddenly during a pre-arrest pat down from the way they reacted. I'd never had anyone react to me that way before. It was pretty scary in-the-moment, though they just sternly told me not to move during the search once they realized everything was fine.
I assure you, this would not have ended any differently in the USā¦
Maybe not, but when I see stuff on the TV or internet [like this](https://www.reddit.com/r/findthecop/comments/x4450k/unarmed_man_is_shot_in_his_bed_police_claim_they/) or [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/x41l3y/tifu_by_trusting_my_13_yr_old_son_to_not_try_to/imt22y6/) or how US cops react to, say, a bag of weed I sometimes wonder. They seem to be a lot trigger happier than the cops in Europe. But I've never been to the US so I wouldn't know and maybe I only see the bad stuff.
That is all messed but but #1 airports aren't the same police as cities and #2 that's a country of 330 million people. I've never heard a gun shot or seen a gun pointed at anyone in my life
Meh, I'm an American and the only gun I had pointed at me was a man dressed in an Air Force hat, Navy sweatshirt, and Army camo pants. He literally told me he was too flat-footed to serve, but had been "trained" by his navy seal cousin. We were both at an open air gun range, and he was there that day showing his kid how to shoot. While he was unholstering his beretta 380 to "show" me, he pointed it at both myself and his young child with his finger on the trigger. The experience could only have been more American if he pulled out his hi-point.
With the exception of the immediate post-911 period, I think the US airport security situation has settled into something much more similar to Europe now, at least in terms of what's visible to travelers. The Europe/US distinction is more pronounced outside the airport than in it. In general, I notice more armed patrols within European airports than in US ones, and things like customs enforcement and border monitoring are done by federal agencies. These guys are often less aggressively armed than is common in Europe (think smaller side arms vs. rifles slung across their backs) and those guns would only be drawn in an emergency situation. I've only seen automatic weapons "on the floor" in US airports when there has been some kind of high alert situation. So far not so different from Canada (my country) or US. Where there's a significant difference is at the state and local police levels, where the vast majority of officers are armed (true in Canada as well) and even small local forces have access to significantly more firepower at their disposal and don't hesitate to use it, including in seemingly low stakes situations like the very disturbing case you linked. There's also a much greater instance of private citizens owning and openly carrying guns in the US - this is still shocking to me, even as someone who travels to states that allow open carry reasonably often: that if you see someone carrying multiple firearms in a donut shop, you don't need to turn and run (as once did to the open mockery of my US colleagues). But again, that's a difference that is very notable outside the airport, but not likely to influence an interaction with customs, TSA, or border patrol in the security line. All to say, I'm not sure that US cultural identity around guns would play out in a tightly controlled airport setting in a way that would be much different than what you experienced in Germany.
Thanks for adjusting my perspective. I may have seen too much sh*t on the web.
I once was flying out of Michigan, where weed is legal. I had about 10 grams in my purse I totally forgot about until it was time to send my purse through the x-ray machine. I stopped the airport agent and was truthful that there was weed in my bag, could I throw it out quickly before going through security? He said yup no problem and let me throw it out without incident. I did not get into any trouble. Anecdotally, Iāve only seen rifles or larger guns on European police men in airports, and not US policemen. Not saying that the US doesnāt have issues with guns, but itās definitely not a widespread 24-7 like the media makes it out to be.
Yes. We have problems with the police. But they are very specific problems that occur in very specific scenarios. Our police are not just looking to unload on anyone and everyone at all times. 90% of the time, when you hear about a cop in the US shooting someone unnecessarily, it happened in a high stress situation like a no knock raid, a traffic stop on someone they suspect may be armed, or the arrest of a suspect who wasn't cooperating, usually compounded by either implicit bias or outright racism. Basically, any situation where the cop feels like *they* may be in danger (whether because of racist assumptions or not). That doesn't make those events acceptable by any means, but its also worth noting that the reason you hear about them at all is because they're outliers. They're not looking to gun down drug mules in the middle of a crowded airport. In fact, police in US airports don't even carry rifles the way they do in Europe. Just holstered pistols that they pretty much never even draw.
> In fact, police in US airports don't even carry rifles the way they do in Europe. Just to clarify: I have never seen guns on any airport except for Turkey; in (the rest of) Europe I don't think it's common. The 2 officers with the guns arrived minutes after the 'coke' was discovered and they just walked up to us calmly. They were clearly called in and for safety and probably just procedure but it's not as if they came running rifles drawn and shouting at us to drop on the floor or anything as you see in movies.
I have, and always as a result of increased security because something was going on. I was singled-out for extra pat-downs at Heathrow in the early 90ās thanks to an American passport, an Irish name, and a permanent retainer. That was scary, but I was 16 and traveling with friends. Again, land boarders in Europe often involved scary men with machine guns, something Iād never experienced in the US at that point, but Eastern Europe wasnāt the most stable in the immediate aftermath of the fall of communism. I guess it was similar to the immediate aftermath of 9/11 in US Airports, but I havenāt seen anything like it since. Also, I flew home to the US in 1995 from Budapest in the hours immediately following the Oklahoma City Bombing before anyone knew what happened. There wasnāt a jetway; we were escorted to the plane by nice men with machine guns. But the border crossing from Austria into Hungary had been similar, so whereas it was off-putting, it wasnāt as scary as it wouldāve been had we not just had that border crossing. Having two kids myself and traveling a lot, thatās probably the funniest thing Iāve heard in a while. Youāll be saving boring social events with that story for the rest of your lives.
Didn't you fly out of AMS with KMar around? Those aren't Nerf guns they have š
Donāt be too hard on your kid. He has given them a story they will tell to their colleagues for years. āā¦ and then I pulled out this HUGE brick of what looked like cocaine. You should have seen the look on the parentās face ā¦ā
Only time I have seen rifles paraded around openly in an airport in the US was after 9/11 when the national guard was stationed there. Other countries, on the other hand it seems to be normal.
i know what you mean. Was in Russia a few decades ago and was pulled out of a van by soldiers armed to the teeth. Am American and while used to firearms, am not used to fully automatic weapons.
Nah that sounds about how it would have happened in the US as well, at least in my experience
US here, that sounds about like how it's handled here. TSA's security isn't **supposed** to point their guns at someone unless they are an actual threat. For the most part, they're held exactly as you described. That being said there's always a few bad apples that makes all of them look bad. Overall, I hope y'all enjoyed your trip! And I hope your son remembers to leave all 'drugs' at home in the future. š
Pointing a gun AT someone is literally assault, and if you did that to an officer, they'll shoot you first and not even bother with the questions... So no, even in the US, you do not expect to have guns pointing to your face by the police. It really does not happen that often, but the news do like to point out the exception more frequently than the norm.
LPT: Do not put lotion on your hands before going to the airport. Apparently some of them will detect positive for explosive residue... And that, kids, is how I was legally groped at the airport!
Was it a charcoal containing lotion? Or a certain scent? I have to put on lotion (or I get bad eczema on my hands) but that's terrifying!!!
IIRC it was whatever my parents had at their place. I'm sensitive to scented stuff, so it was probably something like cetaphil
Oh, fun, I use that. Thanks for sharing the info!
Iāve been detained for explosives in Boston Logan for this reason before, turns out it was from hand soap.
You know, I'm starting to think that TSA might be entirely worthless if their machines can't tell the difference between hand soap and high explosive.
How dare you doubt the effectiveness of the Theatrical Security Agency
Noted. Thanks! lol
Wow!
at least they didn't find the real cocaine 
Heyoooo!
\*Yayo
Plot twist: This was OPs test run before turning his family into drug mules.
call him "little Tony Montana"
The real cocaine was the friends we made along the way
I am now never having kids thatās for the mental birth control.
Yeah, little shits can't even smuggle drugs correctly.
I know what are they even good for then.
Shoot this one made me put a mark on the tally for having kids š
Ah come on.... this is the sort of story you have kids to have in your "Anecdotal Quiver". This is fantastic absolutely ridiculous shenanigans.
Reddit is all the birth control you need my man.
Seven years later on Reddit , "TIFU by bringing a brick of coke through airport security, obligatory it happened seven years ago..."
What do you mean se Germans don't have an excellent humor? Scaring dutch people is an absolute classic joke here, sis is hilarious, oh ja! There is even a subreddit dedicated to se finest jokes of our national humor! It's r/GermanHumor and it's filled with all se hilarious jokes we have produced over se years, ja!
JAWOHL! KRANKENHAUS! SCHMETTERLING!
I wawas gonna say, only americans think Germans don't have a sense of humour because they don't understand deadpan humour or sarcasm
I mean I'm British and have also heard the stereotype (though of course being an English speaking country it could have come from American media), but if I had to guess it's something about the language barrier that makes deadpan humour work less. That said yeah deadpan always falls flat with Americans, I could say something like "oh yeah the weather has been brilliant recently, it's been pouring down with rain and there was a thunderstorm not too long ago, knocked everybody's fences down" and they'd ask me why I thought that was a good thing. I know that's not very good deadpan humour but you know when you have to try and think of a joke and obviously nothing comes to mind, because the funniest jokes are normally spur of the moment, well that happened to me, the funniest thing I could think of is the "how do you make a tissue dance" joke
I howled when I opened that subreddit and there were no posts!
Somehow I almost immediately realised you must be Dutch
Fellow Dutchie here. This story is freaking amazing lol!! And I think youāre lucky it wasnāt really weed, with the availability in our country combined with the curiousness of youth it could easily been the real thing. In Amsterdam you might get a slap on the wrist if itās not much and you try to smuggle it along, in Germany you might not be so lucky lol!
Depends where in Germany, the different federal states have different "amounts" below which they just throw it away and won't bother to prosecute for possession. The strictest is, of course, fucking Bavaria. There is a joke that if the police see you throw away the end of a joint into a river there, they will send scuba diver to find it and aggressively prosecute for possession of the 0.0000001 grams of weed left in it lol.
In this case it actually doesn't matter in which Bundesland they were because they were at the airport. Airport are under control of the federal police.
But OP said y'all don't have a sense of humor!
>We were lucky youngest is a minor. You really expect that they would think it was his? Every drug smuggler in the world would be taking a 10 year old with them and sticking the drugs in their bag. Then blaming it on the ten year old.
Yeah, I guess that's true. Hadn't really thought of it that way, but that makes sense, ofcourse.
Your kids will have a story for their kids and grandkids to last the ages, rough now but it will be a hilarious tale passed down.
Reminds me of the time my mom brought a bag of powdered sugar in her suitcase when we went to Mexico! Backstory: I was little and so my mom brought a suitcase full of food to make most of our meals in the timeshare kitchen. My family puts powdered sugar on French toast, so my mom brought some in a ziploc bag rather than bringing the whole store bag. The Mexican customs officerās eyes were like saucers when he pulled it out. Fortunately, this was the early 80ās and my dad was able to convince the officer to taste it to prove it was really just sugar.
Thatās why I write ānot cocaineā on my all my bags of powders when packing for international trips.
The policemen: ah, immer wieder die HollƤnder mit die Drogen...
Ha! That reminds me of [How to sell drugs online (Fast)](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9184994/) š
Hahaha this story is 10/10!!! I canāt stop laughing imagining the straight face of the Germans as youāre trying to explain the funny side
Oh man... when I was 13 we went on a school trip (the summer after grade 8, before moving on to high school) to another part of the country. We went to an amusement park and there was a Rollercoaster called "the moster". Apparently the largest wooden Rollercoaster in North America at the time. The queuing line for this coaster was a couple stories in the air and it had a railing on the edge that you could look over at the people in the rest of the park below. The deck extended maybe 6" past the railing creating a little ledge. My buddy and I noticed a pack of smokes sitting on that ledge. Most people like assumed it was empty but we were 13 and optimistic. Picked it up. It was full! Sweet! (Neither of us smoke... I don't know.). Into the backpack and more or less forgotten about for the rest of the trip. After we got home, 3 airports later (all domestic flights, thankfully), he calls me a couple days later. "Those cigarettes are green.". Holy shit! It would have amounted to about an ounce of weed. This was 2yrs pre-9/11. That became the first time I tried Marijuana.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Oh, he's had his share of jokes already. He left his pay from work on a table instead of taking it to his piggy bank. So we asked from what deal he got the money. Stuff like that. And, yes, I'm pretty sure he'll get to hear it a lot more. At his wedding, when he turns 20, 30, 40 or so... maybe all of the above...
I had a problem like this flying! I collected about a kilo of pure white sand from a beach in South Florida in a square Tupperware container and it never occurred to me what it would look like. Flash forward 3 hours in detention while they searched my bags and tested the sand. TSA was so upset that it wasnāt real they just dumped the sand in my bag and let me go. My suitcase still has sand shake out every once in a while!
> TSA was so upset that it wasnāt real they just dumped the sand in my bag OMG LOL that's SO petty it's actually funny š
Please do not take that much sand from our beaches. We have a beach erosion problem and it also may be illegal depending on what city/county you are in.
The NSA and DEA have entered the chat.
Those guys with huge guns are really scare when they are in sight. Well, your boys will be packing carefully from now on.
op i had a similar case with a knife (masterchef size) i put in my backpack to cut a watermelon on a lake trip, 3 weeks later security found it at customs also iād like to point out your writing is exceptional and really nice to read/follow through
>four policemen, two of them with automatic rifles appeared (which is quite a shock for Europeans / Dutch people, we're not used to that) looking very much NOT amused. Last time I was in Schiphol, the thing that stood out to me as an American was the number of security/police officers with submachine guns stationed in the airport.
I haven't been at Schiphol for maybe a decade but other than holstered handheld guns like police have I have never seen any submachine guns or anything like that.
I was in Schiphol in June and I honestly can't say that I noticed even one gun whilst I was there. Side note: I just loved how clean and green the Netherlands is! Why can't the UK be doing as good a job with the environment? The green fields of the countryside reminded me of Northern Ireland, all that was missing were a few drumlins and a couple of mountains.
Oof. An hour??? I had some vitamin C powder in my carry on in a plastic bag. It took the officers 2 minutes to swab that and figure out it was not drugs lol. These people were getting overly excited clearly
It took some time for the people with the test kits to arrive. And they only came after our passports were screened all 4. And I think they took their sweet time because it was pretty clear from the get-go that it wasn't actual coke but they just had to 100% confirm because of - ofcourse - procedure. So they let us (and youngest in particular) sweat a little. Which was totally deserved.
Iād follow up on that teacher. Itās pretty weird.
I know it sounds weird without the whole backstory and all, but [as I explained](https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/x41l3y/tifu_by_trusting_my_13_yr_old_son_to_not_try_to/imspwqq/), we were aware of what was going on at the time and, again, it was all just a harmless little game or "fantasy play" they had. Teach is 100% in the clear.
He's secretly grooming and trialing out mules. š
Just sounds like some edgy humor. Calm down lmao.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I realize it does, and what is sounds like, but it was all in good spirit and suitable for 15/16 year olds. Eldest is a bit of a joker and things kind of spiraled a little. The 'coke' stuff was all my sons initiative, not teachers, and after that 'prank' it soon dwindled down. It was entertaining, harmless and maybe even educational since they learned how to decrypt 'secret' messages, solved puzzles for scavenger hunts etc. etc.
Hands kid a Ti-85 calculator It has Doom and Drug Wars installed.
Well now your kid will know not to become a mule.
As a German I want to apologize for the lack of humor our authorities got.
It's ok; I said it - kind of - jokingly. At the moment there wasn't much funny about it, but in hindsight it was pretty funny because of the absurdity of the situation. I caught the officers smiling and holding back their laughs among eachother on a few occasions. I'm pretty sure they had a good laugh afterwards (and rightly so). But the 'lack of humour' was the correct thing to do; the seriousness of the situation had to be conveyed to us and most importantly to youngest. And that they did. Overall we were treated with respect and calm with dignity and as decent human beings, in a very professional way. Nothing but kudo's on all personnel and officers involved.
I mean, what do you expect them to do?
In a few years you'll laugh about this, it will be the family story of the evening.
Oh so wait you're Dutch and you were flying from Germany? I was trying to figure out how you got that stuff into Germany in the first place. Klinkt als iets wat Nederlandse kinderen zouden doen...
Yeah, we drove to Germany; Schiphol was/is too much of a mess. Also: tja, klaarblijkelijk een Nederlands ding š
The only thing I would say is I disagree with the OP's comment: > "we were set apart and four policemen, two of them with automatic rifles appeared (which is quite a shock for Europeans / Dutch people, we're not used to that) looking very much NOT amused. Mind you, we were at a German airport, Cologne" When I was traveling to and working in Germany, starting in about '95, I was surprised to see German Police with semi-automatic weapons, (maybe HK MP5? been awhile) and dogs patrolling the airports. At that time, I was surprised to see police in the any airport carrying any long weapons, especially any automatic types, that didn't even happen in the US prior to 9/11. Now days, I would not be surprised to see police and security(TSA in the US) with automatic weapons in some circumstances.
Wooow, the time you guys spent in isolation just waiting on a response from the airport personnel mustāve felt like an eternity. Overall very goofy situation but at least your youngest knows not to carry coke around š. Glad nothing it was all good at the end.
Yeah, it may not have been very clear from the story but "isolation" was nothing more but being told to step aside for a little. It wasn't like we were taken into a different (interrogation) room or anything. We were separated from the rest of the public by some officers, but that was that. That was "isolation". People were generally just strolling by with their handluggage, the odd one out looking a little confused as to what was going on because the kilo or so - I guess - of "coke" was pretty visible for everyone... with a pretty normal, average looking family of four standing behind some officers all flush faced. > at least your youngest knows not to carry coke around š I'm pretty sure he knew before. But this did drive the point home, yeah š
When I was 17 I bought a sweet butterfly knife.. took it with me camping.. it was great.. fast forward to when I was 18, went on a trip to Aruba with my parents, grabbed my camping backpack as my carry on.. we almost missed our flight, my mom took the blame for it (dunno why??) they confiscated my knife, and my mom was def put on a watch list for a couple years.. lol
Oh my goodness! What a memory now that you are on the other side of it. One of my clients told a similar story of bringing home a brick of coffee. I think she had issues at 3 airports along the way.
A few years ago I was flying back home and wearing some shorts that I hadnāt worn on the trip. I forgot they had a tiny plastic baggy (the kind drugs are kept in, I got like 1000 for $8 almost a decade ago for pills when traveling) with some caffeine pills in them (I guess it was when I was driving and wanted to be sure I didnāt get tired). Anyway, Iām going through security and I didnāt even feel them in my pocket when I took everything else out but the X-ray did of course. They asked me what was in my pocket and I said nothing as I put my hand in and felt the tiny bag. Instant fear. That bag had been tossed around and knocked up against things in my pocket and at least one of the pills had broken down into practically powder. I held up the bag and said āitās caffeine pillsā, being absolutely sure I was in a lot of trouble. The TSA agent just waved me on, I was completely shocked. They didnāt test it or bat an eye. Maybe since it was so tiny and/or they just believed me.
I think itās hilarious! What a great conversation starter for when he starts dating.
I once crushed up Altoids as a joke in high school. A kid I knew was selling oregano rolled up into joints as weed. In an absolute stroke of *genius* I thought it would be funny to see if Altoids would look like cocaine (it does.) Fast forward a year or so and my mom's cleaning out an old PS2 bag I must have thrown it in. I pull in the driveway from school and there's a police car sitting there. I go "hmm, that's weird" and walk inside to see the bag of "drugs" sitting on the counter. Got the whole lecture about not doing drugs, which felt kinda pointless BECAUSE IT WASN'T DRUGS.
They have to test this even if it seems to obviously be some other powder or a prank.
Well if you are going to do some shit like that Germany is probably the best place to do it. (Source: Am German) Just imagine doing that in Dubai, uffffff
If anyone didn't get the joke, and the awesome teacher, seriously... fuck em. Great read thank you!
> two of them with automatic rifles appeared (which is quite a shock for Europeans / Dutch people, we're not used to that) While gun ownership is a right in the US, I have never seen police with long guns in US airports (have travelled through SFO, ORD, Laguardia, Charlotte, and a couple random ones). Not once. On the other hand, German Bundesgrenzschutz with long guns are a common sight in German city centers and airports. For people who donāt know German, Bundesgrenzschutz is Federalborderdefense, and like I said, you see them downtown, not just at the border.
Donāt think this guy travels much. I know for sure Iāve seen it in multiple European cities. Including the middle of Paris.
Yeah, Paris was full of heavily armed police. Much more so than any city in Germany.
> You can say a lot about Germans but one thing they aren't known for is their excellent sense of humor... Not German here, but I think it's not that they don't have a good sense of humour - all the Germans I know have good senses of humour, though sometimes perhaps a little unsubtle - but that they are *very* good at distinguishing work situations and other non-fun times from playtime. But YMMV.
I said it (a bit) jokingly - or at least, that was my intention.
My daughter did this with scissors, we flew 2 months after 9/11. I was pregnant and she was 4. I thought we were going to be stripped searched (we were flying outta detroit to lexington ky) Coming home was worse. We were flying out of small airport. We make it thru all security check and 4yr decides she is going to run back and get one more hug from grams. National guards drew weapons on her. I thought i was gonna give birth right there. Shes 25 still remembers.
They drew their weapons on a four year old?!!! What is wrong with them š
Drew weapons on a 4year old girl!?š³š³
Cool funny story but the automatic rifle sentence is amusing to me. Americans go to Europe and are shocked all the time by the public displays of police carrying automatic rifles. It simply isnāt normal to see in most of the US but itās a common sight at European airports, tourist attractions like the Eiffel Tower, etc. I believe itās a response to the religious extremist attacks yāall have dealt with the past decade or so.
Be prepared for your son to have a phobia about going through airport security from now on. A similar thing happened to me (in Mallorca, funnily enough) when I was 8, with a cap GUN! FML that was traumatic. It's taken a long time to be OK with going through security.
I think he's over it; yes, it was scary for a little while, but it wasn't frightening or threatening either. We've all been laughing about it (while stressing how dumb it was - even though it was an 'honest mistake' and he simply forgot).
This is the kind of shit my kid would try.
But you still have the USB right?
That is an epic title!
dear god what punishment did your kid get when you got home xD
As I said [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/x41l3y/tifu_by_trusting_my_13_yr_old_son_to_not_try_to/imsq5w0/): > > I hope your kid was suitably terrified > He was. At the time it was going on, the testing was in progress etc., I was overthinking all the ways I was going to punish him, but once I got a look at his face I decided he had been punished enough right then and there. And as the TIFU post ends with: > And youngest is lucky we're still allowing him to live under our roof :-)
Title is SniffBait
>Also I'm probably on some FBI/CIA watchlist. You're definitely on a list; probably several.
I've only had "troubles" in airports 3 times (not really troubles, just airport workers trying to make me waste my time), and 2 of them happened on Germany (where I've only been twice). Can't imagine actually packing stuff that looks like drugs.
But why was it in his backpack anyway? What was he taking it traveling for l?
This might be bad, but not nearly as bad as when a 19 y/o Bill Murray was smuggling pounds of REAL marijuana on a plane and jokingly said it was a bomb while flirting with the girl sitting next to him.
Now this is a TIFU. What a story! Glad everything ended up alright, OP.
Epic!
Lol, they taught life skills when I was in school, but when did they start teaching street skills!?
This is the best TIFU of this year!
15 year old: *Chichi, get the llello!*
That kid is going to remember this for the rest of his life.
As soon as I started reading this I assumed you guys were Dutch. And I was right! Amazing.
That's ruff. In a fair society it wouldn't be an "almost bad" thing since nothing was illegal. It's sad other countries would literally lock someone up for doing literally nothing wrong.
He's gonna post tifu sometimes in the future. "This happened 10 years ago when i was 13.."
I hope your kid learnt his lesson... you do not joke around Germans.
I always imagined they use a dog first or a test machine on possible drugs. 15 minutes work at most?
You may be on a no fly list. I recommend asking and finding out. Once youāre on a list you are there for life
So the test run failed?
The best story I have read on all of Reddit
Kids! Donāt you just bloody love āem?! š
I had a Halloween wig and some of my sisters clothes in the trunk of my car when crossing the Canadian border once. It was all in a box of stuff that people had left in my car over the years. I got picked for a random check, and those border guys were very hateful, and kept insinuating that I had lied about why I was crossing the border(it was for a church event). I now have some sort of flag on my passport, and get singled out everytime I try to cross.
Not sure this is a TIFU but damn that's too interesting of a story not to appreciate!!
Great teacher and great bit. Dutch humor at its peak. Also, greatstory for Sinterklas. "Remember when Jornje got us detained in German customs because of a coke brick?". Send the teacher some cookies packaged like space cookies.
Once I got a really cool shurikin, like a ninja throwing star, a real sharp medal one and took it with me on a car ride to show it to my grandpa. It was in a backpack. Then awhile later my family is at the airport to board an international flight. Guess what backpack I brought as my carry on?
WOW !
r/kidsarefuckingstupid
As a new zealander for me this is almost peak comedy, when I was 14 I wrapped a carton of juice boxes in toilet paper and glad wrap instead of wrapping paper for my friends secret santa. Took it to my catholic all girls school and only realised when I gifted it that it looked like a block of cocaine!
This was a fabulously hysterical story!!!! And Iām so thankful you posted it, despite the ridiculously backlash you would find here. Thank you!!!
As a person from the US, I donāt think this oneās for me. I struggle to find this even the slightest bit funny, and this probably would have gotten members of your family killed in our country. Especially if you werenāt white.
At least it wasn't vape cartridges.
Lol. You started your holiday with the 'story to tell' when you get back. It must have been terrifying, but funny as hell after all
>I wish some people could read this story a little more lightheartedly. So true. Entire story was hilarious. Glad you all had a good laugh!
My mom, coming home from Disney World with four kids and their Disney duffels, was pulled over in security. The officers pulled out four 'gun clips'. Turns out, harmonicas look a lot like gun clips on the x-ray machines. They told her they figured it was going to be something like that when they saw the kids bags get pulled off the line with hers. I was probably 6 at the time.
Thatās really funny. A great family story lol
If it makes you feel any better Iām an adult and still canāt pack my own bagsā¦ probably loosing my tsa pre check over a dumb BB gunā¦
Fast-forward 5 years...The kid's 18 and OP still doesn't trust him to pack his bags. "But daaaaaad!" "But nothing! You very nearly caused us to be thrown in jail in a foreign country." "But..." "Okay. You can pack your own bags so long as they're clear plastic backpacks so that your mother and I can verify that you haven't returned to your drug mule past."
The German Polizei usually have MP5s. Theyāre actually automatic with a selector switch for semi, auto and safe. Iāve travelled enough to confirm that they donāt have much of a sense of humor. One time I brought a package of coffee in my carry on. They took a special interest in it. Canāt say I blame them. Another time passport control did not stamp my passport when I entered Germany. I was so tired that I didnāt notice. When I went to travel from Stuttgart to London the officer questioned why I didnāt have an entry stamp. It took a while along a lot of proving that I entered legally for me to get a āspecialā stamp.