I think I made a fool of myself

I had to go into a court room building yesturday. I walk up to the desk and see the metal detector. The guard says "please take everything out of you pockets". O boy. This will be fun. First I put down my wallet, which I made out of duct tape, so I got a wierd look right off the bat. Then I pull out my phone. Then the change. I pull out my cree modded greatlight(I posted about it in the mods section). Next comes the dorcy aaa. Then my coast mini tac on my keychain. Then a spare aa alkaline. Then 4 ag13 button cells for the coast. He gives me the stangest look and says "you're into flashlights huh?" I felt like an idiot. I proceeded through the metal detector and then shoveled everything back into my pockets. What have you guys done to me. A month ago I had a minimag collecting dust in my closet and now I am a walking light house and have spent $110 on flashlights. :goodjob:

I always make sure to carry only one light when wlking into a prison or simmilar institution. For exactly this reason
See it this way ... you learned something for life. You should be grateful
bernie

I once had to hand my briefcase over for searching before being allowed into court. The sheriff's officer made a huge, and rather public, show of going through all the junk I carry around with me, before confiscating some chopsticks.

I don't know why I was carrying them - I removed knives and flashlights beforehand - but I must have slipped the chopsticks into my bag sometime, thinking they would come in useful someday. Doh!

Anyway, they were giving me trouble about taking my bag in. I was sticking to my guns (I was there as a journalist; lawyers don't get hassled like that) and telling them I was going in and the bag was going to be with me. I think they just wanted to humiliate me.

vinsanity286 said:

... now I am a walking light house and have spent $110 on flashlights.

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Consider yourself lucky. :shakehead:

vinsanity286 said:

I am a walking light house and have spent $110 on flashlights. :goodjob:

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Only $110.00:huh2: You have only scratched the surface. On me at any one time are three lights. ARC-AAA, Fenix P0D-CE, and some other light (HDS, Fenix, Arc, Surefire, whatever) with the value sometimes exceeding $400.00. Even when I fly there are two lights in my pockets and a couple in my carry on bag. I get weird looks from the screeners but never a comment.

If a guard (or TSA) said something out loud that was not security related, such as "in to flashlights" I would inform them to keep their political comments to themselves and not make comments about my personal desires for others to hear.

Again like ray said only 110 ?!
Still i am more than happy to only EDC my Draco XRE outside work hours, i find it more than enough for any kind of emergency.

vinsanity286 said:

... and now I am a walking light house and have spent $110 on flashlights. :goodjob:

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:sigh: $110 is...quite a small number
we have folks here that goes to 4 digits or more:huh2:, like this guy https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/152447

I only counted 3 lights, I suppose its enough for your needs...
I carry around 4-5, give or take...not including keychain lights

good to know the bug hasnt got to you to the point of no return, but all that will change, it is inevitable

thought the same thing about the ammount. ($110) now that,my friend, is funny.:lolsign:

LOL. I know its not alot compared to others on this forum but I have only been a flashaholic for a month and for a poor college kid I consider it a fairly large chunk of cash.

I had a printer maintenance contract in a court building back before 9/11. I would have to park in a garage somewhere so I would pack as many tools in my pocket as I thought I would need so as to not need to carry my tool bag along with toner vac and parts. It turned into a game to me to see how many of their trays I could fill
I then took my shiny new leatherman in and one time when they said they would need to keep it I asked what of theirs I got to keep, another time I asked if they were providing me tools since they were keeping mine, another time a female guard said "ohh its a leatherman, its ok".

Thats funny. I actually had a small pocket knife as well. I forgot it in my back pocket. It is really small, like the size of fingernail clippers. The guard looked at it like he had never seen a knife before. He kept it until I left.

It's all relative. There are probably people here who spent the equivilant of 4-5 hours worth of their average pay back in the early 70's for a Kel-lite (I did!)

I think I'd probably think twice about spending 4-5 hours of today's pay on a flashlight, even though today's pay may actually be worth less in actual value than the amount from the 70's.

vinsanity286 said:

LOL. I know its not alot compared to others on this forum but I have only been a flashaholic for a month and for a poor college kid I consider it a fairly large chunk of cash.

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I went through the metal detector at the police station downtown in November. The PDIII didn't get a second look. They asked what the Gladius was, but didn't try to turn it on, or ask me to do it. I was hoping that if they did activate it, it wouldn't be on the strobe. I had to check the Leatherman tool with them though.

Im waiting for the day one of you walks through a metal detector with a 2 cell surefire and have it reverse charge detonate as they have you turn it on. It'll be on the news.

vinsanity286 said:

LOL. I know its not alot compared to others on this forum but I have only been a flashaholic for a month and for a poor college kid I consider it a fairly large chunk of cash.

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I agree and I know how you feel. I know it's easy for CPFers to say "oh $110 is nothing" and egg you on, but to us students any extra cash is a ton of money.

I'm a college kid and it is hard to muster up the cash. I have a decent part time job, but my bills eat up all my money.


Just my 2 cents.

carbine15 said:

Im waiting for the day one of you walks through a metal detector with a 2 cell surefire and have it reverse charge detonate as they have you turn it on. It'll be on the news.

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by how aluminum flashlights are made...they make excellent detonator tubes if the battery can be set off manually, and because of this I'm scared of it...

vinsanity286, why do you feel like you made a fool of yourself? be proud of it
to them we are all part of the same compost heap, but we're the brightest heap in the lot

I had a similar experience when I walked through the Airport with my 2 way radio,
should have seen the looks

TORCH_BOY said:

I had a similar experience when I walked through the Airport with my 2 way radio,
should have seen the looks

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did you tell them you were an undercover air mashal?
Federal Air Transportation Air Security Service..."F.A.T.A.S.S"

dudemar said:

I agree and I know how you feel. I know it's easy for CPFers to say "oh $110 is nothing" and egg you on, but to us students any extra cash is a ton of money.

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student here...I can only shell out $40 max at a time, otherwise I'd be heavily in debt

we arent trying to egg you on, we're just giving warning of the difficult times you will face here in the future.

I second that. You are being WARNED, not egged.

I was warned once and didn't listen.

You've obviously haven't read THIS thread.

I've stopped smoking for 5 weeks now. 24w Boxer is coming soon.
I've earned it.

Illum_the_nation said:

did you tell them you were an undercover air mashal?
Federal Air Transportation Air Security Service..."F.A.T.A.S.S"



student here...I can only shell out $40 max at a time, otherwise I'd be heavily in debt

we arent trying to egg you on, we're just giving warning of the difficult times you will face here in the future.

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raythompson said:

...If a guard (or TSA) said something out loud that was not security related, such as "in to flashlights" I would inform them to keep their political comments to themselves and not make comments about my personal desires for others to hear.

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I would suggest you just smile and shrug it off. It serves no purpose and annoying the TSA - who are trying to do a difficult and generally thankless job - could easily get you some annoyance back; and I bet they'll be able to annoy you more than you'll be able to annoy them.

I've tried to be pleasant and informative and maybe have gotten a few of them into the flashlight hobby. I KNOW I've gotten a few flight attendants to go out and buy some personal EDC lights as they actually have real uses for one.