ran into Airport security issue

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psus2020

New Member
Guys,

I do not know if this is an issue or not but, I've to tell someone to ease myself and make sure that there is no one out there with a similar experience.

As I was coming to my home country, I was referred for a complete security check - a random check, am sure - at the airport in NY. I came out clean but the stupid machiene over there detected some kind of chemical on my hand bag. As you have guessed, the security called up bomb squad and others and made a big scene over there. They brought in a dog but it didnt find anything. Later the officer took all my details and said you are clear. They let me go. I have been travelling for the past 20 years or so but nothing happened like this before. They took all my details - that's what is worrying me.

I am a US citizen - became about 4 years ago.

Please share your thoughts......
 
Thank you very much for your quick response.

I was very surprised and rather terrified that day after the incident. Believe it or not I have been carrying that bag for several years now. The officers repeated the testing process multiple times and also on different machines - eactime the machine detected some chemical (dont know what it was). You know what I was not the first person that day to go thru that hell. I overheard someone saying that the machine made noise for three other passengers that day before me (not sure about calling the bomb squad and the dog).

Do you think I should consult an immigration lawyer and get the advise?
 
Same thing happened to me

The same thing happened to me. The machine went off when the scanned my laptop computer. They took all of my info etc. It was no big deal. The machine was not calibrated correctly!

Don't worry about this! This has no bearing on your citizenship.
 
Same thing happened at Toronto airport on my laptop. Since I work from home, they guy asked me if had lately done any gardening before working on the laptop. I said yes. He said that's what it was and asked me to fill a form with name and address. Said it was just routine paperwork.IF something drastic hapappened it might help them investigate . No biggie. I didnt give it a second thought. psus2020 nothing to worry..
 
How can anything like this ever have an "effect" on citizenship ? Unless you are a proven terrorist, you have nothing to worry about. Must have been a scary experience being
searched by a bomb squad!
 
Was it the wipe test device ?

It is some sort of spectrometer that detects volatile nitrous compounds. As most explosives seem to contain nitro compounds, this is believed to be a good screening for explosives. As someone here said, fertilizer is a common source of similar compounds (in fact ammonia-nitrate mixed with diesel fuel is one of the most popular commercial explosives, e.g. in mining operations).

If you are a citizen, don't worry about it. If you still had to go through agency background checks it might be different. (This past weekend I got stopped by airport security bc I had a Swiss-Army type pocket knife in my carry-on. I had planned to check the bag but was running late....)
 
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