TSA agent jailed man because he asked to file a complaint

The dispute began over a misunderstanding about energy bars
(Image credit: iStock)

Last week, a Philadelphia man named Roger Vanderklok filed suit against the TSA, the DHS, and the Philadelphia Police Department over an incident in the Philadelphia airport in January 2013. Vanderklok was traveling to a half marathon in Florida when he had a misunderstanding with a TSA agent about whether he was carrying "organic material" — in this case, energy bars — in his carry-on bag

After the half hour of confusion was cleared up, Vanderklok mentioned that the delay could have been avoided if the agent had better explained himself and asked to file a complaint. Enraged, the agent summoned the police, confiscated Vanderklok's belongings, and accused him of "threatening the placement of a bomb" and making "terroristic threats."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.