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Airport Screener Out of Job After Prank

Teased passenger with fake bag of drugs
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 23, 2010 3:26 PM CST
Airport Screener Out of Job After Prank
Passengers wait in a security line.   (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

A college student returning to school after the winter break fell victim to a prank at Philadelphia's airport by a TSA worker who pretended to find a plastic bag of white powder in her carry-on luggage. The worker is no longer employed by the TSA, said a spokeswoman, who declined to say whether he was fired or quit.

"He let me stutter through an explanation for the longest minute of my life," wrote Rebecca Solomon, 22, in the Michigan Daily college paper. "Tears streamed down my face as I pleaded with him to understand that I'd never seen this baggie before." A short time later, she said, the worker smiled and said it was his. "He waved the baggie at me and told me he was kidding, that I should’ve seen the look on my face." (More TSA stories.)

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