Sunday, July 12, 2009

No end of dumbasses in sight.

I thought when unemployment got a certain level, people would get better at their jobs. It turns out I was oh so wrong.

This morning Mr S. and I went to an event which required you to go through metal detectors to enter the event. Which is no big deal. It's pretty much expected with any gathering of thousands of people.

This of course made the line wait pretty long. Additionally, going through metal detectors makes my anxiety tick up a little. I'm usually carrying my camera bag with a couple lenses. I'm not comfortable handing off that kind of money to anyone. Especially not your average security worker.

Most of the time though, they just make you open your bag and all is well. This is what I expected at this event. They'd just want to look in the bag.

So, the girl in front of me walks up and hands her purse to the security guard on the outside of the metal detector. Then walks through the machine. He then hands her back the purse without having her open the bag or even checking inside.

Self I say - that is really odd! Maybe they don't want to deal with privacy issues with women's bags. Still I think, "crap, now this security guard is going to be in full possession of my camera gear". I prepare myself up to tell the guard to be careful with my bag.

I walk up. Hand him my bag, walk through the metal detector. He hands me my bag back. It never goes through the detector, and he never searches it. My eyes become like saucers. If there is any bag that should be searched, mine should fit the criteria. It could never be mistaken for a woman's purse. It also doesn't look like camera bag. It weights probably five or six pounds. It's all hard and bumpy. Sort of like smuggling a six pack of beer or soda in something the size of a womans purse. Only heavier. Since I usually carry it around for hours, the smaller bag I have to carry the better. I shove a lot of stuff into a very small area.

Granted, I don't fit the profile of someone they would expect is going to cause trouble. But, we go there all the time for car shows and they don't have the metal detectors there. So, why go through all the trouble of trucking in the machines, if you aren't even going to search bags? It was just the oddest thing. They were even wanding some people. Yet, if you wanted to get in a gun - I guess you could just hand it to a chick with a purse.

The funny thing is - that when I handed him the bag, I could see it register on his face that that bag seemed oddly heavy for a woman's purse. He still didn't ask to search it.

1 comment:

  1. And clearly the second thought in his head was, "She's so respectable looking. Couldn't be anything bad."

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