chrissy
01-15-2002, 11:39 PM
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-0201150005jan15.story?coll=chi%2Dleisure%2Dhed
Story posted below:
You've read the many stories of the nobility of the human spirit in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But there also have been absurdities and excesses.
Certainly not the first -- or last -- is the well-publicized story of 75-year-old Michigan congressman John Dingell, forced to strip to his skivvies on Jan. 5 after his artificial steel hip set off a metal detector at Reagan National Airport. ("They felt me up and down like a prize steer," Dingell said.)
Closer to home, there's the chilling tale of a West Suburban breast cancer survivor. She tells us her prosthesis -- "my fake boob" -- was confiscated by security guards at St. Louis' Lambert Field as she tried to catch a plane back home to Midway Airport. Hurriedly packing, the woman says she tossed the $390 prosthetic breast into her carry-on bag, choosing to go braless for fear that the underwire in the garment would set off the metal detector.
At the X-ray machine, a sharp-eyed security guard asked to examine the squishy, flesh-colored item. Not convinced it wasn't filled with a dangerous liquid, the security staffer seized the breast as other passengers looked on. Several phone calls later, the breast was delivered to the exasperated woman's home the next day. No apologetic note was enclosed, not even a voucher for a double order of honey-roasted peanuts on her next flight.
Okay, is it just me, or is this a little "across the line"? I am all for safty, but for some security guard to think a prosthesis BOOB to be suspicious, I think is a little ... far fetched? I would be courious to know if it was a woman or a male security guard.
Story posted below:
You've read the many stories of the nobility of the human spirit in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But there also have been absurdities and excesses.
Certainly not the first -- or last -- is the well-publicized story of 75-year-old Michigan congressman John Dingell, forced to strip to his skivvies on Jan. 5 after his artificial steel hip set off a metal detector at Reagan National Airport. ("They felt me up and down like a prize steer," Dingell said.)
Closer to home, there's the chilling tale of a West Suburban breast cancer survivor. She tells us her prosthesis -- "my fake boob" -- was confiscated by security guards at St. Louis' Lambert Field as she tried to catch a plane back home to Midway Airport. Hurriedly packing, the woman says she tossed the $390 prosthetic breast into her carry-on bag, choosing to go braless for fear that the underwire in the garment would set off the metal detector.
At the X-ray machine, a sharp-eyed security guard asked to examine the squishy, flesh-colored item. Not convinced it wasn't filled with a dangerous liquid, the security staffer seized the breast as other passengers looked on. Several phone calls later, the breast was delivered to the exasperated woman's home the next day. No apologetic note was enclosed, not even a voucher for a double order of honey-roasted peanuts on her next flight.
Okay, is it just me, or is this a little "across the line"? I am all for safty, but for some security guard to think a prosthesis BOOB to be suspicious, I think is a little ... far fetched? I would be courious to know if it was a woman or a male security guard.