Dennis RomeroUPDATE at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, July 1, 2015: The TSA confirmed the incident. See more below.
Dear travelers: Don't put your pets through the carry-on X-ray machine at the airport, even if they have a half-dozen balloons of heroin in their little tummies.
A man (or woman, see below) learned this lesson the hard way sometime after 2:30 p.m. at LAX today. (No drugs were involved, just a feline.)
He/she put his/her cat through a baggage X-ray and apparently went on alone through passenger screening. People went apeshit and tweeted about it, as was first reported by Gawker.
The amount of screaming that's happening in the Jet Blue terminal at LAX is incredible right now and yet it feels completely appropriate.
— The Sklar Brothers (@SklarBrothers) July 1 2015
HOLY SHIT. A dude just put his cat inside the X-Ray machine at LAX. The TSA is flipping the fuck out.
— Sara Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) July 1 2015
I have seen people pulled out of the TSA line for knives. Guns. I have never seen the rage of the TSA when dude just put his cat in the XRay
— Sara Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) July 1 2015
The TSA folks at Terminal 3 at LAX are animal lovers. They lost their shit when that dude put his cat through the scanner. RAGE.
— Sara Benincasa (@SaraJBenincasa) July 1An LAX spokeswoman said she had zero information about the incident, and we couldn't reach anyone from LAWA Airport Police.
TSA spokeswoman Lorie Dankers hadn't heard about the incident until we called, but she told us this:
It's not unheard of that people have done that, which is why we try to educate them. When you travel with your pet, do not put your pet on the X-ray. The No. 1 thing is you should never separate yourself from your pet. We know people love to travel with their animals.
She sent us these tips on traveling with pets.
Credit: TSA
UPDATE at 5:48 p.m., Wednesday, July 1, 2015: A LAWA Airport Police official told us, “We didn't arrest anyone for putting their cat through the X-ray.”
UPDATE at 7 p.m., Wednesday, July 1, 2015: TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said, “In fact it did happen.” But he did not have further details.
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