TSA officers find ‘artfully concealed’ knife in traveler’s laptop

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) – A traveler at Richmond International Airport in Virginia was stopped at a security checkpoint on Friday after officers with the Transportation Security Administration detected a knife concealed inside his laptop.

On Nov. 11, a TSA officer working the checkpoint’s X-ray machine saw what appeared to be a knife inside a traveler’s carry-on bag. The bag was searched, but officers did not find the prohibited item. The contents of the bag were then separated and screened again.

TSA officers then noticed that one of the X-rays appeared to indicate the knife was inside the laptop.

“After obtaining tools that could disassemble the laptop, a double-edged knife was found to have been artfully concealed inside the guts of the computer,” the TSA wrote in a press release issued this week. 

The traveler, from Williamsburg, Virginia, initially denied knowing anything about the knife, but later confessed that it was his.

According to Robin “Chuck” Burke, TSA’s Federal Security Director for Richmond International Airport, the man now faces “a stiff federal financial civil penalty.”

Burke also praised the on-duty TSA officers and Richmond’s airport police for their “superb” work.

“Detecting artfully concealed weapons points to the training and skill of our officers who are focused on their mission to ensure that prohibited items that could cause harm are not carried onto flights,” Burke said.