The Candy Bomber

My wife and I are flying from Raleigh to Ft. Worth Texas tomorrow. Of course that means going through security. Sometimes that can be quite a hassle. Wearing an insulin pump can present a problem depending on who happens to be at the screening post. Whenever I go through security I always think about something that my brother experienced on his way to visit a friend on the mission field.

My brother, Mike, and his wife Lisa, were flying to Kenya, I think. It may have been somewhere else. A couple from their church had gone as missionaries to wherever it was. Mike had promised the friend that he would bring him his favorite candy bars. On the way to the airport Mike happened to remember that he hadn’t gotten the candy. So he quickly pulled into a Speedway to buy the candy. The problem was that the only thing they had was the very large squares of that particular candy; something like by 4 by 6 inches. Mike bought all they had and stuck the candy in his carryon.

He and Lisa got to the airport and proceeded to go through security. Mike laid his backpack with the candy on the conveyer, and continued on through the line. When he went to get his backpack two TSA’s stopped Mike and ushered him back to a room. One carried the backpack. I’m not sure exactly what they did in the room, but I think it involved a bright light, handcuffs and threats of waterboarding.  Those large candy bars stacked on top of each other apparently looked like a bomb. Luckily for Mike he was able to convince his interrogators that the candy contained nothing that would explode. He was released and even got to keep his candy.

For several weeks my brother was known as the Candy Bomber.  His picture is still posted at airports in Kentucky. I just wish they had cleaned the chocolate off his face before they took his picture.