Statement: You no longer have to take off your shoes to go through the security line at airports.
Response: No kidding.
The statement was uttered by a Homeland Security guy to me at both Hobby Airport in Houston and Baltimore-Washington Airport in Baltimore.
You can guess what happened next.
When I walked through the scanner with shoes on, the bells and buzzers went nuts.
“You’ll have to take your shoes off,” a guy in uniform said.
“But the guy back there said I don’t have to,” said innocent me.
“You don’t, unless the buzzers go off. Then you have to take your shoes off and send them through x-ray.”
He continued, “Some shoes have metal brads that set off the buzzers.”
I looked down at my shoes. Copper looking brads glared up at me as if saying, “You should have known, you dumb ass.”
The brads were right.
I’ll know what to do the next time I fly.
Unless someone tells me otherwise.
Then, I’ll take of my damned shoes no matter what.
Almost every shoe I own, with the exception of a few simple but uncomfortable pumps, has something metal on them. I don’t foresee myself dashing through the airport in pumps, so that’s a no-go. All of my boots – which are the standard wintertime footwear for the Colorado Rockies – have buckles, zippers or those gosh-darn metal brads. Even my moccasins have zippers on the back.
As the metal in my underwire bra frequently sets off the scanner, I’m amazed I’m not being asked to simply strip for every flight I take. This is what insanity looks like.