At the Vancouver airport on my way out of town for five weeks in South America, I'm quite aware that I have to remove my computer, camera body, flash, and lenses from my bag before running the pack through X-ray. Off the bag goes, and I walk beepless through the metal detector. When I get to the conveyor on the other side, I see that my pack is being run back and forth several times and the staff are becoming rather agitated. After several passes, a woman intercepts the bag and starts to open it up. It's about now that I warn her I have some pretty weird things in there. After a bit of a shuffling through my clothing, she pulls out something that looks almost exactly like this:



She finally gives the tripod and ball-head the green light, and as I'm repacking my bags she keeps smiling and almost apologetically saying "it looks like something very serious for us." I got the impression that she wasn't allowed to make references to any dangerous materials that could be brought into the airport, but after a few minutes she finally leans towards me and quietly says "It looks like a grenade."

I went through airport security something like 6 more times on that trip, and never once had anyone question the GorillaPod, but you can bet I was a lot more careful about making sure it was out of the pack before it disappeared behind the rubber curtains of the X-ray box.

Anyone have any gear stories that caused surprising results with airport security?

LOL - thanks for the warning - Im about to get a gorillapod!!!

BTW - I have never taken my camera gear out of my bag and never been asked to - I didnt know you had to!! Is it a Canada thing?

Once I bought a metal reproduction of a sheriff's badge for my nephew. For some reason that freaked out the x-rayers. Not sure what they saw dangerous about it.

One of my work colleagues had a problem when she packed an old style mechanical analog alarm clock next to an extra computer battery in her carry on. The security guy showed her the x-ray image, because of all the wires inside the computer battery, it looked like a cartoon image of a bomb. Go figure! Travel tip #23757 - keep clocks away from your batteries.

A bit off topic, but couldn't resist ....
Navy submariners work long hours in cramped conditions. Working with the same guys for weeks on end with no sunlight, port visits or women around, someone who is even mildly annoying is unbearable by the end of the trip. It's long been a prank to get back at the annoying offender (though not sure they still do it post 9-11) by wrapping a dildo or vibrator in aluminum foil and slipping it into their carry on bag before going through security (preferably in a foreign country where there's also a language barrier).

We had been in Indonesia and bought a beautiful wooden puppet. It could be divided into 2 pieces: the body; and the head with a long stick, to insert it back into the body. We had the 2 pieces wrapped up in different parts of the suitcase, so they would fit. When we headed to the next country on the trip, Singapore, the airport staff (with machine guns) spent a long time searching our bag. They later told us that the head with a stick looked like a grenade. When they saw that it was an Indonesian puppet, they said, "OHHH, why didn't you tell us you'd been in Indonesia?"

My shotgun mic freaked out the TSA in SFO. Especially when they asked what it was and I said, "Oh that....it's my shotgun mic". Yeah, I don't call it that anymore and I take it out of my bag and place it in a bin with my computer.