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Suspicious luggage causes airport delays in Minnesota and California

January 7, 2010

LuggageIt’s no secret that airport security has been taken to new heights since the Christmas Day Northwest Airlines scare. As of yesterday, two more busy airports in the country endured delays due to suspicious baggage. In California, a dubious-looking bag called officials’ attention, and in Minnesota, a suitcase containing Gatorade bottles filled with honey tested positive for TNT.

The bag in California caused a conflict when bomb-sniffing dogs reacted to its scent, which alerted authorities that something may be wrong with it. Officials called in a bomb squad to investigate, only to learn that the bag itself wasn’t truly luggage – it was just a placeholder than airline employees used to signal the end of the line, and to act as a “last bag.”

In Minnesota, the investigations surrounded the luggage of Francisco Ramirez. Inside his suitcase, a few Gatorade bottles were filled with a thick amber liquid that Ramirez, a gardener, identified as honey. When TSA officials opened the bottles, the fumes nauseated them. The suitcase itself was tested and resulted positive for both TNT and an organic explosive called acetone peroxide.

Investigators are still determining whether the liquid is actually honey, and whether Ramirez’s gardening chemicals could have ended up in the bottles. The man cooperated with authorities and was not arrested, according to USA Today.

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