The Weirdest Things Confiscated by the TSA

More than 2 million people pass through TSA checkpoints every day. While most travelers are content to bring basic items like toiletries, headphones, and a neck pillow with them, others are compelled to bend the rules for reasons that make sense only to them. Here are some of the strangest things the Transportation Security Administration has had to confiscate at the airport.

A Live Turtle

Turtles do well in water, but on airplanes? Not so much. That made last year’s discovery of a live red-eared slider at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey especially notable, not least because the pet was stuffed in its owner’s pants. The turtle was fine, but as you’d probably guess, the man didn’t make his flight.

“We have seen travelers try to conceal knives and other weapons on their person, in their shoes, and in their luggage,” Thomas Carter, the federal security director for the TSA in New Jersey, said in a press release. “However, I believe this is the first time we have come across someone who was concealing a live animal down the front of his pants. As best as we could tell, the turtle was not harmed by the man’s actions.” All’s well that ends well.

A Freddy Krueger Glove

One, two, Freddy’s coming for you — but even he can’t make it past security with his bladed glove. “It’s safe to sleep on Elm Street again. Freddy lost his glove at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport,” TSA wrote on Instagram of the 2018 incident. Perhaps the passenger who attempted to carry the device was angry that there hasn’t been a new Nightmare on Elm Street movie in so long and wanted to make one of their own.

A Firearm Inside a Raw Chicken

In a pun-filled Instagram post, the TSA announced it had found a firearm concealed in the unlikeliest of places: a raw chicken. “We hate to beak it to you here, but stuffing a firearm in your holiday bird for travel is just a baste of time,” the agency wrote ahead of Thanksgiving 2022. “This idea wasn’t even half-baked; it was raw, greasy, and obviously unsupervised.” Suffice to say that neither the fowl nor the firearm made it past security at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

A Chainsaw

One fateful day in 2014, a traveler failed to heed the advice of the popular local blog Keep Albany Boring when they attempted to bring a chainsaw through security at Albany International Airport. Making the move especially ill-advised was the fact that the tool would have been allowed in a checked bag as long as there had been no trace of fuel or fumes, but the traveler apparently didn’t want to go that route.

Ninja Stars

You may think ninja stars are cool, but most of us have enough common sense not to pack shuriken (the traditional Japanese hand-hidden blade) in our carry-ons. The exception that proves the rule took place in Newark. TSA officer Gabrielle Connor-Findley described the incident to the New York Post as “just not something that you see. You’re going to take a double, triple look. You’re like, ‘Is this what I think it is?’”

Rocket Grenades

If you simply must purchase 14 inert rocket grenades, please don’t bring them to the airport. Those words of wisdom went unheeded by a would-be flyer who brought his RPGs to Spokane International Airport in August 2025, at which point they were swiftly confiscated. There was no real danger, as they weren’t live rounds, but it’s still difficult to imagine how anyone thought this was a sensible carry-on item.

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