A lot of us have so many different stories about TSA. Some of them are infuriating. Some are nice. Some are confusing.
But this latest TSA story is just funny.
Social media celebrity Emily Mei (Emily Ghoul on Twitter and Instagram) was flying to Korea from Los Angeles when she was stopped by TSA for suspicious items in her bag. When they opened the bag, they found 20 packs of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Yes, you read that right. TWENTY packs.
“Apparently, it’s hard to get [Flamin’ Hot Cheetos] in Korea so my friends ask me to bring it for them,” Emily wrote on Twitter.
Emily thought they were just going to let it go when the TSA agent saw the snacks. But the agent actually inspected each pack with test strips.
Emily had to take a video of what happened because it was just too crazy. She posted a 9-second video on Twitter while the agent (whose face and name tag was deliberately not shown) wiped down each bag with a test strip.
Frito-Lay, the brand that makes these Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, got wind of this crazy story.
“The thought that someone would take the time to bring bags of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos to a friend halfway around the world – and seeing the video of it in action – made us smile,” Brandi Ray, senior director of marketing for Cheetos, said to USA TODAY.
And they made a promise to Emily if it became a problem.
“If, for some reason, Emily Mei doesn’t get her Flamin’ Hot Cheetos to her final destination, Chester Cheetah will personally ensure she receives another shipment,” Ray added.
But, fortunately for Emily and her friends, she didn’t have any problem because the TSA agent gave her back all her twenty Flamin’ Hot Cheetos packs.
Emily doesn’t endorse or get paid by the snack brand, she just really loves it. She’s posted about it several times on her social media accounts.
Last June, Forever 21 sent her a Flamin’ Hot Cheetos swimsuit because they found out how much she loved the snack. She posted the swimsuit on her Instagram account with the snack as props.
And on October 2019, she demonstrated her love for Cheetos in an outfit that resembled the Flamin’ Hot variant on Twitter.
According to TSA, the snacks are allowed to be carried in carry-on baggage. However, it is up to their discretion if there is anything suspicious.
“Even if an item is generally permitted, it may be subject to additional screening or not allowed through the checkpoint if it triggers an alarm during the screening process, appears to have been tampered with, or poses other security concerns,” TSA states on their website.
And while this is funny, the TSA agents are actually used to this kind of situation already. When Emily posted about her Flamin’ Hot Cheetos incident, several of her followers shared their own TSA stories.
“I had 10 sandwiches (for my family to eat at the airport) and they opened and looked inside EACH sandwich,” @fridge_repair shared their experience.
And they weren’t the only ones.
“My wife is a supervisor for TSA and they did the same to us when we came back from Disney and she had TWENTY-FIVE bags of their granola mix,” @divadoc9 shared.
Watch the video below to hear Emily Mei’s account of what happened to her at the airport.
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