Thanksgiving weekend is among the most traveled weekends of the year. With many travelers comes plenty of baggage—the storage kind, not the personal kind. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is required to collect a large number of “free Christmas gifts” from all the items they take at this time of the year. Cigar cutters, lighters, pepper sprays, knitting needles, nail files, and liquids: their efforts to safeguard us from the dangers of midair nail-clipper attacks leave them with plenty of “free” merchandise to pick from.
TSA agents located in New York City received a surprise this week when they discovered something more intriguing than a bottle of water in a suitcase. It turns out that a cat was discovered inside a bag that had been checked in at the John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). More interesting: It wasn't the traveler’s cat, and he didn't realize he was carrying cat-related contraband.
The incident happened on November 16, according to a TSA spokesperson who informed KTLA’s sister station WPIX on Tuesday. The cat went unnoticed until the bag was put through an X-ray machine, setting off an alarm and delivering a “shock” to the on-duty TSA officer who discovered the feline, TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein posted on Twitter.
The cat was owned by someone who lived with the traveler and likely jumped into the suitcase while it was being packed. The orange cat was secured inside the luggage without anyone noticing. The traveler only became aware of the incident once the security officials at the airport discovered the pussycat.
The cat did not suffer any harm; however, a special Thanksgiving lesson was learned by everyone: “If it fits, I sits, so zip before I sits!”
