NEW YORK – When a Hopewell Junction man went through security at
LaGuardia Airport on Sunday, TSA officers spotted a suspicious device in a carry-on bag as it was being screened at the security checkpoint.
The bag contained two torch-style lighters along with a homemade container made out of a nine-inch long PCV pipe and end caps, which resembled a pipe bomb.
However, when an end cap was removed, a partially smoked cigar was inside.
The man told authorities he had crafted the item to serve as a homemade humidor for his cigars.
He was told, though, that the device could be easily perceived by the flight crew and passengers as a pipe bomb and that he could not take the items on the plane, so he surrendered them.
“Our TSA officers are vigilant about looking for explosive devices, and this certainly gave the impression that it could be a pipe bomb that someone was attempting to carry on an aircraft,” said Robert Duffy, TSA’s federal security director at LaGuardia. “Fortunately, it turned out not to be an explosive device, but had he pulled it during his flight, it could have caused a panic. Replica weapons ae not permitted on aircraft and this easily could have passed for an improvised explosive device. It was a good catch on the part of the officers who were staffing the checkpoint.”
NEWS STORY PROVIDED BY: Mid Hudson News -www.midhudsonnews.com