It’s an everyday occurrence at airports around the country: a passenger enters a checkpoint with a cane and submits it for X-ray screening. But sometimes that cane isn’t just your everyday cane! That was the case this July when a female passenger placed her cane on the X-ray belt at Denver International Airport.
TSA officer Zachery Barbee was manning the X-ray that day and he was shocked to see that concealed within the body of the passenger’s cane was a 12-inch blade! Barbee immediately called for backup and Supervisor Clinton Carlson performed the search and discovered the blade.
When Carlson approached the passenger about what the X-ray found, she said she had recently purchased the cane at a street fair and was surprised and unaware that it came equipped with a special feature in the form of a hidden blade. Maybe the creepy silver skull handle should have been a clue?
Carlson presented Barbee with an on-the-spot award for the professionalism that he displayed and his superb X-ray skills.