Authorities Pull Missile Launcher From Man's Checked Luggage: 'Don't Be That Guy'
Federal authorities discovered a missile launcher in a man’s checked luggage at the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Monday, PEOPLE confirms.
The missile launcher was spotted by Transportation Security Administration officers during a routine screening Monday morning. The owner of the missile was tracked down by airport police and detained for questioning.
The man, a resident of Jacksonville, Texas, told police that he was traveling home from active military duty in Kuwait and wanted to bring the missile, which was not live, home as a souvenir.
“Maybe he might consider in the future bringing home a T-shirt, hat a mug or a key chain,” TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein tells PEOPLE. “Don’t be that guy.”
Farbstein says military weapons are not allowed in checked or carry-on bags.
No arrests were made.
“It was a prohibited item, not an illegal item,” she says.
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The weapon, she says, was confiscated and handed over to the state fire marshal.
In March, a Florida man was detained at Lehigh Valley International Airport (ABE) when TSA officers opened his bag and found unassembled parts of a rocket propelled grenade launcher and a grenade inside. The checked bag contained the weapon’s barrel, trigger, sights and grenade.
It was later determined that the grenade launcher was not functioning and the grenade was a replica.
