Posted on 02/04/2011 5:17:04 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants
While checking in for my flight this morning in Nashville, TN I saw a man, (light skinned, bald, 5'7", 220lbs) taking photographs of the people standing in line at the airline ticket counter and then walking over to where he could see people standing in line waiting to have their ID and boarding passes checked at the first TSA station and taking a couple more pictures.
Red flags and bells went off in my head like crazy. The guy wasn't taking pictures like you would take pictures of your family standing in line. No, he wasn't looking to get vacation photos to post on facebook and he wasn't a professional photographer (inexpensive camera and he was not setting up shots). I watched him for a minute taking photos and then watched him go into the restroom that could be seen from the TSA ID checkpoint.
So, being a good citizen concerned with safety, I immediately went to the first TSA agent and told them what happened. You would think that they would immediately call someone over and see what the heck this guy was doing, but, no, the supervisor they called over was more concerned with dealing with the lady who had misplaced her driver's license. After a moment, he FINALLY listened to my story and seemed to be only mildly interested and not concerned at all. So, to be sure that maybe I hadn't just given possibly vital information to a moron who would be too stupid to follow up, I told two more supervisors. Since I had to catch my flight, I could do no more.
Maybe I was overreacting, but I think that the guy just might be collecting info for something bad.
Any other Freepers seen anything strange lately?
See something, say something.
Like Big Sis sending border patrol agents to Afghanistan?
When stuff like that happens, take a picture of the guy with your phone and find the airport police. For the most part TSA is useless in a case like that.
It won't be long until cameras are included in the weapons category.
You should have first said something to those around you, then yelled out to the photographer, “Hey...are you from the xyz News? Is this for a news story?” That would have gotten others involved very quickly.
You are one responsible freeper is all I can say.
Maybe you could call back and see if your report was followed up on deep sixed.
It does sound odd. Definitely something I’d expect TSA to follow-up on. Hopefully, it’s just some dude getting photos for his blog.
If you think they are unbothered now, wait until they are unionized. ;-)
Once had a guy taking photos of my house, called the police and due to the nature of my work at the time, they followed up on the guy’s license plate.
Turned out he was a realtor taking photos for comps. Could be an innocent explanation, the problem is the (non) reaction of the airport official.
The system worked.
Maybe he was a perv...wanting to get pictures of people being groped?
I fly all the time, have had a knife laying open in the seat behind me when I boarded, and many other situations which I reported...they came and got the knife and said a maintenance worker left it there..very comforting...IE) If the government does it, it sux
LOL! Good one.
just think of the reaction if you’d been at Walmart....
Thank you, Comrade Napolitano.
Maybe zero should get Uncle fester to light America with His mouth as an energy plan..
Only by the Chinese FBI fellow on our boat from HK to China the first time.
My first thought was that he was one of the TSA’s own agents. Or some other agency’s agents.
Not that it’s good, mind you.
They are likely trying to have a comprehensive database such that all the street security cameras can ID folks automatically by computer matching almost instantaneously. He might well be tasked with collecting air travellers for such a database.
George Orwell is archaic . . . sort of.
I don’t know who I’d contact if I really thought I needed to in such a situation. I might look around for a sincere looking security type with some Christian symbol or at least a USA flag . . . and inquire gently if such was anything I or anyone else needed to be concerned about.
The odds are . . . standing out or making a fuss in that situation will not likely turn out to be to the average traveler’s benefit. Not that we should all be passive sheep by any means. Just that we need to more and more carefully pick our battles.
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