An alarming Army freebie

BoingBoing reader Allan Janus says,

I went to a "Public Service Day" fair on the Mall in DC the other day. All of the armed services parked military hardware for the civs to look at, and they were giving away all sorts of freebies. The Army gave away fine squeezable stress-reducing hand grenades. I kept wondering what would happen when the tourists headed home, and the TSA ops saw the grenades in their luggage, or better yet -- their carry-on baggage? I took mine home and had much stress-reducing fun with it!

Reader comment: Klash says,

The bit about TSA finding grenades in luggage is what caught my eye. Based on experience, you have nothing to worry about.

Last fall I was in North Carolina area for meetings. A co-group had done up these same squeezee-foam grenades as internal schwag. My son loves all things related to munitions, so I decided to take a few home for him. I had FOUR of the "grenades", packed together and stuffed in my very-full carry-on. When going through screening, I did not offer up the fact that I had such toys in my bag, figuring if they were discovered and confiscated, no big deal.

Their screening process required me to remove belt and shoes, but the machines did NOT detect the foam grenades.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 03:24:59 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments

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