Officials with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) called out and mocked one traveler who seemingly attempted to sneak a firearm through a security checkpoint by concealing the gun within a raw chicken.
A pun-infested post on Instagram was shared by the official TSA account on Monday, which included a series of pictures of both the entirely raw uncooked chicken and the contraband in question, issuing a warning to those planning to travel that agents will always be watchful for these “half-baked” plans and schemes.
“There’s a personal fowl here,” started the caption for the post from the official TSA account.
“The plot chickens as we barrel our way closer to Thanksgiving. For us, it’s a time to be thankful that our officers are always working around the cluck to keep you safe. Take for instance this ‘hen you believe it?’ find at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport,” continued the post. “We hate to beak it to you here, but stuffing a firearm in your holiday bird for travel is just a baste of time. This idea wasn’t even half-baked; it was raw, greasy, and obviously unsupervised. The only roast happening here is this poor packing choice!”
“Feather you like it or not, there are rules for traveling with guns and ammunition. So, don’t wing it; roost over the proper packaging info through the link in our bio,” concluded the official post.
As explained by the TSA, the raw chicken itself was legal to travel with — as are most other types of fresh foods and meats, as long as they contain no liquid and are securely packed on ice. Additionally, the handgun– as long as it was entirely unloaded — was also legal to fly with, but only as long as it was within checked baggage and inside of a fully locked hard-sided container.
To go along with this, as seen on the TSA website, “Firearm parts, including magazines, clips, bolts and firing pins, are prohibited in carry-on baggage, but may be transported in checked baggage.”
The same goes for all replica and toy firearms being allowed inside of checked baggage — however, one notable exception is that rifle scopes are allowed to be in carryons in checked bags.
The official Instagram account for the TSA is a hotspot for pun-laden posts about travel. Another recent post made sure to make fun of someone who forgot a set of false teeth after a flight.
“Are you having hard fillings about an item left at the airport? Well, brace yourself, as you might be enamored with these next bites of information. If you forgot an item on the plane, you should chews to reach out to your airline directly. If you’ve misplaced your item outside of security, the tooth fairy can’t help you, but airport lost and found can,” stated that post. “You know that we won’t ever drill you with unwanted airport wisdom. So, best to brush up on your lost & found contacts through the link in our bio. Paste your airport code in the search function and molar over the return information.”
