Nobel prize medal comfounds TSA - "what's in the box?" "who gave it to You?"

[Liberal_in_LA]

“So they opened it up and they said, ‘What’s it made out of?’ I said, ‘gold.’ And they’re like, ‘Uhhhh. Who gave this to you?’ ‘The King of Sweden.’ ‘Why did he give this to you?’ ‘Because I helped discover the expansion rate of the universe was accelerating.’
“At which point, they were beginning to lose their sense of humour. I explained to them it was a Nobel Prize, and their main question was, ‘Why were you in Fargo?’”

Mr Schmidt, who had been to Fargo to visit his grandmother, said the staff were particularly suspicious as the gold in the medal gave it a somewhat unusual profile under the airport X-ray machine.

"It weighs a half a pound, and it’s made of gold... so it absorbs all the X-rays – it’s completely black. And they had never seen anything completely black.”

Http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11157117/Whats-in-the-box-Scientist-questioned-by-incredulous-Fargo-TSA-agent-for-having-Nobel-Prize-in-his-carry-on.html

[djean111]

1. Good thing it was not police - they might have just confiscated it.

[Hoppy]

8. -- confiscated it, after a good tazering

in response for his being a smart-ass.

[CaptainTruth]

2. Guess their medal detector was out of order.

[petronius]

3. ...

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. lol

[sakabatou]

5. ...

[blkmusclmachine]

7. Hehehe - good one!

[SaveOurDemocracy]

11. LOL!

[kairos12]

15. Ore it was unplugged.

[spooky3]

19. DUzy!

[Retrograde]

6. To be fair, I don't think Fargo

sees a lot of Nobel laureates - or big things made of gold, for that matter. TSA inspects anything that looks odd to them on their xrays, like my filagree hair clip at one small airport.

The story ends just when it's getting to the good part, though: what happened next?

[cstanleytech]

9. "what happened next?" Well hopefully not a cavity search. nt

[PatrickforO]

14. Oh, boy...

[JDPriestly]

17. More likely and hopefully -- a Google search -- images.

Nobel Prize winner universe expand or something like that.

[Gormy Cuss]

10. I wonder what the TSA agents thought of the Latin inscription on the reverse.

Or for that matter, what they thought about the profile of the guy on the obverse with the label "Nobel" next to it.

[spooky3]

20. I once was questioned about a belt that i

Had arranged around the perimeter of my suitcase. I guess I was supposed to wind it up in a tight coil. Who knew?

[truedelphi]

21. on the other hand, I once carried a TENS unit

In my purse. Even after several friends with military expereince told me that the unit looked too similar in design to the type of device that would allow for remote control detonation of a bomb.

And the TSA screeners gave it nary a glance.

It is hard to figure out what it is that determines their responses...

[aggiesal]

13. A tiny glimpse of ...

our education system at work.

[Nevernose]

22. Don't go blaming the education system

There's lots of water out there for the horses to drink.

[aggiesal]

23. OK, it's not education system per se, ...

but the budget cuts on the education system that is
causing the dumb-ing down of America that's in play here.

[Calista241]

16. If they only knew that Alfred Nobel was was an arms manufacturer..

This guy would still be in a TSA interview room.

[bluestateguy]

18. Uh-huh

And that's why he's a world famous scientist while they're scanning bags at airports.