Top finds at TSA checkpoints in 2011 include more than 1,000 guns and C4

TSA's top finds

The Transportation Security Administration has found 1,200 guns, snakes, C4 explosives and inert landmines in the past year at airport checkpoints around the country.

The agency listed its “Top Ten” finds of the year on its Web site on Jan. 2. The most significant discoveries, it said, not only included dangerous items like edged weapons, loaded  guns and explosives, but offbeat things such as science experiments that look like bombs and live animals.

“Some are dangerous, some simply look dangerous and can cause major delays, and others are just plain weird,” said the post.

The site termed the discovery of small chunks of C4 military explosives found in the bags of a U.S. Army Private at Yuma International Airport in Arizona last July as the number one find of the year by its security agents. The half ounce of explosive was found in the checked bag of a 19-year-old soldier, concealed in a tobacco can. TSA said its agents made the discovery in the checked bag using an Explosive Trace Detection (ETD) test. The private, Christopher Wey, was subsequently charged with attempting to carry an explosive on an aircraft and transportation of a stolen explosive. TSA said he was apparently bringing the material home to show his parents and officials had said he had no apparent intent to harm anyone.

Although it didn’t make the top ten list as the discovery happened on the last day of 2011, TSA agents made a similar find at a Texas airport. On New Year’s Eve, TSA agents detected explosives in the bags of another travelling soldier. The FBI arrested Trey Atwater, of Hope Mills, N.C., on Dec. 31, while he was going through security at Midland Airport in Texas. The FBI said they arrested Atwater on charges of attempting to carry concealed explosives onto an aircraft. Atwater has claimed he used the explosives as a demolition expert while serving in Afghanistan, but didn’t know they were still in his bag. Atwater had also been detained days earlier at the Fayetteville, N.C., airport after security agents found a military smoke grenade in his carry-on bag.

The second top find on the agency’s list included the discovery of a loaded .380 pistol strapped to the ankle of a passenger passing through a check point in Detroit Metro Airport on Dec. 13. The 76-year-old passenger, said the agency, forgot the pistol was there.

The third top find was the total number of guns found during the year at checkpoints across the country. The agency said it found over 1,200 firearms, some loaded or with rounds in their chambers. For the most part, TSA accounted for the discoveries as passengers’ forgetting their presence in luggage.

The agency also noted that it found knives concealed in a book in a passenger’s bag at Washington National, as well as inert landmines in bags at Salt Lake City airport, a stun gun disguised as a smart phone in Los Angeles, a flare gun and seven live flares in Norfolk, as well as assorted live snakes, turtles, birds and fish concealed in luggage at Miami and Los Angeles.