Conversation with Airport TSA agent...

[crayfishgirl]

TSA:  We're going to have search this bag. (proceeds to rifle through it)

me: It's a breast pump. (gathering my two year old, calming my 3 month old, and trying to get my shoes back on while trying watch what he was doing)

TSA:  Yes, I'm aware of that, but there's something coming up on the scanner (yanking on the interior)

me: What is coming up?  That part doesn't come out.

TSA:  There's something on the scanner (as he's pulling on the interior).

me:  Can you be more specific...except for a battery pack, there's nothing else in there.

TSA:  Wiring of some kind...it looks like a motor.

me:  Yes, that would be the pump...its a breast pump, which is operated by a small motor.

TSA:  *blink*

TSA:  Let me scan it again.  (scans again)

TSA:  You're free to go.

Idiot.

[hildare]

you mean it wasn't one of those magickal telekenetic breast pumps? 

[lilbsmama]

Idiot.

i totally agree.

[CherryBombMama]

Idiot.

lol. that made me laugh
 

[TCMoulton]

Eh I wouldn't call him/her an idiot. I have only ever used a manual pump & have never even seen out of the box an electric pump. If this person has never been around a person who pumped they may not have known that there are electric pumps.

[HollyBearsMom]

I wouldn't say idiot either. Unless you are lactating woman, have experience with lactating woman who pump or are involved in such a field that gives you said experience I don't know how you would know how a breast pump works. They have been trained to look for wires, tubing, etc. I would have thanked him for being thorough and moved on.

My husband was still pretty  when he first witnessed my pump-in-style in action. Especially when I first plugged it into the car lighter.  Never mind the male co-worker who stopped me and said "What meetings do you keep going to with that big briefcase?" His face was also pretty much like this  and then like this  when I explained the briefcase....

[chfriend]

Erm, y'all don't think they cover what a breast pump looks like in TSA training class? Seems like if they don't, they'd want to go ahead and add that.

[poorlittlefish]

I travel a lot for work and going through airports with milk and my pump infuriates me like no other.  I especially love it when they have to open up the bottles of milk and wave that stick over that tells them that the milk-looking substance isn't actually gasoline or something. 

I make a lot of one day trips, there and back in the same day.  In the Milwaukee airport (which is THE WORST for this type of thing) on my flight headed home they tell me that I can't have my cooler pack with me since it is liquid in the middle.  I said, it is only liquid because it has been out all day--naturally as it thaws it turns liquid. They looked at me like I was speaking another language. 

Makes me nuts.

[Caitlin0919]

I would still call that guy an idiot. He said he knew it was a breast pump, what did he think powered the pump?