Sparkles On Her Bottom

Going through DIA, I requested a wheelchair because my ankle and toe have converted me into a slow-motion snail! I went through security with no problems, but when I glanced at my granddaughter, I noticed she seemed to be having security problems. A TSA agent was asking her questions and then the agent ran a wand over her, walked to where her bag had come off the conveyor belt, and took her bag to a metal table where he went over her bag with some kind of paper or tape. The agent said, "Wait right here, I have to call someone else." I sat in the wheelchair and my granddaughter stood beside me. I asked the man what was happening, why all the checking of her bag. His reply was, "Someone is coming to check her out."

I asked, "Did you find something?" I got no response. My granddaughter looked at me and I smiled to reassure her. We waited for about ten minutes. Another young woman at another metal table had her suitcase open and two security persons were going through her suitcase. My wheel chair helper said, "They found something she isn't supposed to have in her suitcase." Before long, four policeman joined the security person and were quizzing the young woman who looked frightened.

"How much longer do we have to wait?" I asked. The man answered, "Until (mumble) get here." I was about to ask him what he had said, when two women in the blue uniforms of TSA arrived. They told my granddaughter she had to go into a room for further checking. I said, "Wait, I am going in with her." I unbuckled myself from the wheelchair and limped into the room with my granddaughter. "Why all this checking?" I asked. After asking my granddaughter if it was all right to pat her down, one of the agents patted my granddaughter by running her hands down her arms, around her neck, beneath her breasts, her waist and legs. "What do you think you saw?" was my question. The agent replied, "There was something like sparkles on her bottom." One of the agents asked,  "Do you have a pet?" When my granddaughter said she had a dog, the woman said, "Sometimes pets run around outside and bring things in on their fur and because the machines are so sensitive they alert us."

We never found out what my granddaughter was suspected of having but it was a relief to leave the security area. "Wow, I'm glad that's over," I said. She replied with, "My heart was racing!" I told her she looked cool as a cucumber and I never would have thought she was scared. She looked at me with her big eyes and said, "Yes, that was scary!"

As we left the security area, the lady pushing my wheelchair commented that the other young girl was surrounded by police and that she was crying.  If "sparkles" could have caused such a flurry of checking, I wonder what the young girl could have packed that was causing such a commotion.

I was curious and looked on the internet for items prohibited from being carried on the plane. Sparkles were not listed and when I actually put the word "sparkles" as an item, a large red blurb came up: ITEM NOT FOUND.  Go figure!

On our return to Denver, we both sailed through security and my granddaughter did not even have to remove her shoes.