TSA removes nunchucks, saw blades and more from carry-on bag at LaGuardia

Forget that soda bottle or errant tube of toothpaste.
One airline passenger thought it was a dandy idea to place a six-pack of sharp or potentially dangerous items into his carry-on bag at LaGuardia Airport in New York City on Sunday.
It was quite the array, totaling three saw blades, one pair of nunchucks, a switchblade and a folding knife for good measure.
However, the Transportation Security Administration doesn't approve of such things as carry-ons. The items were caught during pre-departure screening, and the agency later sent out a "lump of coal" chastisement on Twitter highlighting the incident:
"A lump of coal for this guy for the holiday. Six prohibited items among a traveler's carry-on items at @LGAairport on Sunday - 3 saw blades, nunchucks, a switchblade and a knife that folds into a bullet-shaped sheath. @TSA recommends packing these items in a checked bag."
TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein, who posted the tweet, told CNN Travel in an email Monday afternoon that the items were not illegal, but are prohibited in carry-on bags. They are allowed, however, in travelers' checked luggage.
"So no arrest. The individual repacked them in a checked bag and continued their trip as planned," Farbstein said.
What reason did the traveler have for such a stash in their carry-on? "They said they were moving," Farbstein said.
A CORNUCOPIA OF ITEMS
It remains to be seen if this passenger's array of sharps would be among the TSA's most unusual recent finds.
Each year, TSA releases its "Top 10 Catches," a roundup of the most bizarre items the agency has confiscated. While there's still most of another month to go for weird items to surface for 2022, TSA's 2021 list included:
- Bullets hidden in a deodorant stick.
- A breakfast burrito — with meth in it.
- A can of bear spray.
Click here to find out what the other seven items were.
So next time you're flying and you have an urge to put that baseball bat, bowling pin and boxing gloves in your carry-on, check here first and find out which one of the three is allowed.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Why wasn't the suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down over Canada?
Critics say the U.S. and Canada had ample time to shoot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon as it drifted across North America. The alleged surveillance device initially approached North America near Alaska's Aleutian Islands on Jan 28. According to officials, it crossed into Canadian airspace on Jan. 30, travelling above the Northwest Territories, Alberta and Saskatchewan before re-entering the U.S. on Jan 31.

Thieves cut huge hole in Ottawa restaurant wall to get at jewelry store next door
An Ottawa restaurateur says he was shocked to find his restaurant broken into and even more surprised to discover a giant hole in the wall that led to the neighbouring jewelry store.
Rescuers scramble in Turkiye, Syria after quake kills 4,000
Rescue workers and civilians passed chunks of concrete and household goods across mountains of rubble Monday, moving tons of wreckage by hand in a desperate search for survivors trapped by a devastating earthquake.
New details emerge ahead of Trudeau-premiers' health-care meeting
As preparations are underway for the anticipated health-care 'working meeting' between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada's premiers on Tuesday, new details are emerging about how the much-anticipated federal-provincial gathering will unfold.
Quebec minister 'surprised' asylum seekers given free bus tickets from New York City
Quebec's immigration minister says she was 'surprised' to learn the City of New York is helping to provide free bus tickets to migrants heading north to claim asylum in Canada.
The world's deadliest earthquakes since 2000
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake shook Turkiye and Syria on Monday, killing thousands of people. Here is a list of some of the world's deadliest earthquakes since 2000.
Mendicino: foreign-agent registry would need equity lens, could be part of 'tool box'
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino says a registry to track foreign agents operating in Canada can only be implemented in lockstep with diverse communities.
Vaccine intake higher among people who knew someone who died of COVID-19: U.S. survey
A U.S. survey found that people who had a personal connection to someone who became ill or died of COVID-19 were more likely to have received at least one shot of the vaccine compared to those who didn’t have any loved ones who had been impacted by the disease.
opinion | Don Martin: Alarms going off over health-care privatization? Such an out-of-touch waste of hot political air
The chances Trudeau's health-care summit with the premiers will end with the blueprint to realistic long-term improvements are only marginally better than believing China’s balloon was simply collecting atmospheric temperatures, Don Martin writes in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca, 'But it’s clearly time the 50-year-old dream of medicare as a Canadian birthright stopped being such a nightmare for so many patients.'