On Monday, an unidentified woman traveling through Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) was caught carrying two suspected hand grenades. Both turned out to be bottle openers.Despite suspicions about the woman’s curious choice of bottle openers, she was ultimately allowed to board her flight. Her luggage, however, was delayed by security and didn’t reach the aircraft on time, the Associated Press reported.According to the AP, the hollow hand grenade replicas even come with explicit warnings for travelers, as they can be easily confused for the real thing when passing through X-ray machines.Though this situation fizzled, similarly poor packing choices have been known to cause complete and utter mayhem, making it just another reminder that any item that looks like a weapon is not allowed on aircraft.In June, a security checkpoint at Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) was shut down after a “suspicious” item — later identified as a toy grenade — was brought into the airport.And last month, a passenger traveling through Astor Piazzolla International Airport (MDQ) in Mar del Plata, Argentina caused an evacuation after discarding a grenade-shaped marijuana grinder before boarding their plane.Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.Most recently, Terminal D of Berlin’s Schonefeld Airport (SXF) was shut down after a collection of sex toys resembling fragments of a bomb were flagged as “suspicious items” as they made their way through the baggage X-ray.After a secret probe of security checkpoints in November 2017 revealed a failure to detect mock weapons at a rate of approximately 80%, TSA administrator David Pekoske promised the TSA was “implementing measures that [would] improve screening effectiveness at checkpoints.“Perhaps that’s why so many miscellaneous grenade-shaped objects have been seized this year.Meanwhile, if you’re worried that you’ve packed an item that might hold up security (or worse: halt operations at the airport) tweet @AskTSA about it on Twitter before proceeding to the airport. But if you have any items, however harmless, that resemble weapons of any kind, do us all a favor and just leave them at home.
