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Man Arrested At Oakland Airport For Ornate Watch

Posted by timothy on from the time-enough-for-love dept.

First time accepted submitter mbeckman writes "A man was arrested at Oakland airport for having bomb-making materials. The materials? An ornate watch and extra insoles in his boots. Despite the bomb squad determining that there was no bomb, The Alameda county sheriffs department claimed that he was carrying 'potentially dangerous materials and appeared to have made alterations to his boots, which were Unusually large and stuffed with layers of insoles.' The man told Transportation Security Administration officers that he's an artist and the watch is art."

5 of 519 comments (clear)

  1. "first time plagiarist" by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Well done Timothy. I submitted this story earlier and the submission by mbeckman appears to be copied from my submission.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    1. Re:"first time plagiarist" by mbeckman · · Score: 5, Informative
      Whoever57, If that is your real name.

      I did copy your previous post, after I replied to it and Slashdot for some reason deleted the whole article. I had saved a copy and reposted to help propagate this inportant example of TSA idiocy. I didn't give you credit because you're the kind of person that calls someone a plagiarist for simply reposting the existence and summary of a widely available news item. You plagiarist, you ;)

  2. Can't decide if this is good or bad... by Kwyj1b0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the article, it seems as if the TSA did the safe thing and called the bomb squad, which I guess is the right thing to do. I don't expect the guy at the checkpoint to be able to decide if the "modified" watch is dangerous or not, and so they called in the experts (who decided that there were no explosives).

    What bothers me is that he was then arrested: "McGann was taken to Santa Rita Jail in Dublin where he was charged with possessing materials to make an explosive device" (emphasis mine). Isn't that too broad a charge? I'm sure every household has material that could conceivably be used to make an explosive device. Is everyone a threat now (in an actual enforceable sense, not in a we-assume-everyone-is-guilty sense)?

  3. I'll just leave this here by zill · · Score: 5, Informative

    Since no one mentioned it yet, Casio F91W.

    Remember, choosing the wrong brand of watch could land you in Gitmo.

    Casio, not even once.

  4. Re:materials... by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Informative

    Who builds a watch with wires and "fuses" hanging out of it and then walks thru airport security?
    Really, who does that?

    You're right, but only in this very refined case. About 10 years ago I built a noise cancelling system out of a microphone, some electronics and I was young so it all looked very home made. It worked well, almost as well as the Bose QuietComfort series headphones. Flying was a real treat with my custom contraption on. Yet now I suddenly can't take it through airport security for fear of me not actually getting to my destination.

    There are documented cases of artists, students, professionals, teachers, vendors with tech equipment, and likely more all having major problems with airport security for the same reason, they dared to build something.

    This guy may be a fool and an attention seeker, but many others aren't.