In 2015, the TSA collected $765,759.15 in spare change, which were all coins left by passengers heading through metal detectors. They do make an effort to return unclaimed money to passengers.

The agency once returned a bag with $8,000 in 2016. They also found the owner of a $30,000 Cartier watch back in 2008. Items valued at less than $500 are held for 30 days, while expensive items are brought to a warehouse where they are stored for two years.

The “golden hour” is the 60 minutes you spend in an airport right after getting through the security line. Look up for departure times since that tells you that you have plenty of time to waste. Don’t fret about the extra 10 minutes in the security line though. It reduces the amount of money you’ll spend by around 30%.

The TSA encourages people to adopt detection dogs who didn’t pass the training program. These are dogs who aren’t housebroken and can’t find bombs. Labradors, Belgian Malinois, German Shepherds, and German Shorthaired Pointers are the usual breeds.

It is an adoption process that it is involving. The TSA wants to make sure these dogs go to good homes, so it’s not like you can just point at one abd drive it home.

Pay extra and you can fly with a kayak. It will count as an additional piece of baggage so it can be a bit of a hassle. A passenger at the Elmira, NY airport had a gassed-up chainsaw, with the only non-permissible item being gasoline. Naturally, the chainsaw had to be checked. A Saudi sheikh can bring his 80 falcons by buying 80 seats for them.

Israeli security firm X-Test claims that mice are more effective than dogs when detecting explosives. Plus they’re cheap to obtain and care for. Mice don’t need a lot of money for TLC unlike dogs, and they can be conditioned mechanically to detect contraband.

Someone tried to go through security with seven snakes and three tortoises. Security is so strict that even hummingbirds stuffed down there didn’t go through. There’s also a case of two monkeys, 50 endangered orchids, and a few birds in luggage. Can’t make this stuff up.

Multiple incidents involving women with big hairstyles singled out for additional security has made it on records. An African American hairstylist was told that her hair had to be checked for explosives.

Another woman contacted the ACLU to report her experience, and to her surprise, the ACLU lawyer experienced the same and had filed a complaint. The TSA has agreed to stop singling out African-American women just because of their hairstyles.

The TSA’s “Week in Review” blog contains stories of people who tell security that they have bombs.

Others who think they’re funny go with, “I am going to blow up the plane and know how to do it”.

Some try to make it seem like a joke saying, “You better check me close, I am about to blow.”

These people get removed from their flight, so don’t even try your luck. The TSA don’t think jokes like that will have them explode in giggles.

The TSA SPOT program tries to identify potential terrorists just by looking at a passenger’s behavior. These include “exaggerated yawning,” “widely open staring eyes,” and even “excessive throat clearing.”

Then you have “appearing to be in disguise” and “whistling while approaching screening”.

So don’t look too tired, or too relaxed, or even too anxious. Just don’t breathe.

The TSA’s Screening Passengers by Observation Technique (SPOT) program had a psychologist specializing in lie detection described the agency’s “terrorist tells” as “behaviors [that] have no established link to deception whatsoever.”

Their officers will walk up to anyone and just go, “So where are you going today?” and wait for the person to answer. It really depends on the way they answer and not the answer to the question itself that concerns them.

The best way is to respond without showing undue fear, aggression, or anything else not expected of a typical traveler at the airport.

Who knew that cheese is “indistinguishable” from explosives in an X-ray machine? Imagine the headache of a Boston passenger who was classified as a potential terrorist thanks to a block of cheese and a cell phone charger.

Security will suspect all that food in your baggage so better think ahead and tell them as sson as you step up.

Not that you should try the TSA on this, but since security is the goal, they don’t really look for contraband. The procedure for illegal substances is to report it to law enforcement.

Rapper Freddie Gibbs allegedly went through security with marijuana in his luggage, which had the inspecting officer leave him a note that said “C’mon, son.”

There’s a limit on the output of scanners for passengers going through. Many airports use a device called a millimeter wave unit. Also, the national standard requires X-rays to deliver less radiation than four minutes of airline flight.

The TSA has theirs at two minutes of flight. Earth actually exposes us to ionizing radiation everyday and that’s about the same dose from an X-ray scanner as living 42 minutes of life a day.

You can actually board if you possess an ID and just happened to leave it at home. The TSA does make allowances for forgetful people, giving them a chance to share just enough personal information to confirm their identity. They’ll ask additional questions and would probably screen you more but at least you don’t need to drive back home for that ID.

Investigative reporter Peter Greenberg shared a way to avoid lines monitored by many agents. No one wants to line up and wait anyway.

Greenberg explains that when there are several agents, that indicates that one of the agents is in training. Every single bag in that line will be inspected for a little longer as part of the training process. A longer line with one agent will move more quickly than one that has a trainee.