Reply to post: Not quite the same, but...

A floppy filled with software worth thousands of francs: Techie can't take it, customs won't keep it. What to do?

juice

Not quite the same, but...

A relative acted as an international sales manager for a British manufacturing company, which involved a lot of flying around the world.

Including the USA, sometime relatively shortly after 9/11. Which meant that the security theatre was jacked up to maximum.

On entering the security checks for a flight back from the USA to old Blighty, my relative was checked by a security guard, who checked all of his stuff, including a Palm PDA (or somesuch). And the security guard took out the stylus from this PDA and unscrewed the tip to reveal a little steel pole, which could be used to poke the reset button on said PDA.

Much to my relative's bemusement, as he wasn't aware of this feature. And he was even more bemused when the security guard declared that this tiny steel pole was a lethal weapon and that he therefore couldn't take said stylus onto the plane.

My relative found this ridiculous, and therefore ended up in a full blown argument with said security guard, which only ended when their superior officer rocked up and laid down an ultimatum: either you board the plane without the stylus, or you don't fly home. At which point, my relative gave up and surrendered the stylus.

Perhaps surprisingly, the customs people promised to post it to him, and it did indeed eventually return via mail. I can't help but wonder if this was an implicit acknowledgement that the superior officer knew that their minion was being over-zealous, but couldn't lose face by admitting it...

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