I've never been a religious person. I have aunts and uncles who are quite pious (or so they tell everyone). Suffice it to say that religion has disappointed me more than once, though I see no point in denigrating someone else's religious beliefs provided they're not hurting anyone.
After Redditor PM_ME_YOUR_WIRING asked the online community, "What ruined religion for you?" people came forward to share their stories. They're rather eye-opening and provide excellent insight into why people don't take to religion at all––or abandon it altogether.
"That people would try..."
That people would try to force their religion onto me and make me feel like I was a bad person if I didn't have the same beliefs as them.
"I was told..."
I was told that dinosaur bones were planted in the ground by Satan to trick us into believing in evolution.
"Learning that my mom..."
Learning that my mom got alienated and bullied after she tried creating a single moms club at our church.
"My parents told me..."
My parents told me at a young age that I would go to hell for asking the question "how do we know god is real." They could have simply said to read the Bible or something like that. But instead they told me that I would go to hell, I guess it was the idea behind "blind faith."
My infant brother's death. I was very little when he died at 3 days old, but it always bothered me being taught that Jesus was the only man that ever lived without sin. I thought "what could this helpless little baby have done that was a sin? He never even cried?" When I asked my very catholic grandmother about it she told me to watch what I say because I was being blasphemous.
"Being kicked out of Christian school..."
Being kicked out of Christian school prior to the third grade because my Mom bought the wrong edition of the Bible.
Scientology ruined my religion for me.
I'm an actor, and they hired me to do some instructional/education video for them and paid decent. I know they're kinda kooky, but I thought "Hey, I've worked for crazier people in this industry" so I met with them on their super secret 'Gold Base' in Southern California.
I shot there for several days, and got to know the staff/volunteers who have dedicated their entire life to serving Scientology. I learned a lot about their religion, as I've been genuinely curious about all faiths.
I remember driving home after my final day on set, and thinking to myself "How can such normal, nice people believe in something so obviously false? I mean, their founder, who has been historically documented as a scoundrel and a crook, literally wrote a book, got a huge influence of people, and then convinced them that it was the one true way to live!"
Being a fully practicing Mormon at the time, you can imagine my shock when I immediately realized that's the exact same thing people say about my religion.
"They would judge you..."
How hypocritical the people in church were. They would judge you and condemn you for drinking as a teenager yet I would see the pastor and all the deacons out drunk and driving home at friends houses whose parents went to the church.
"When I came to the realization..."
When I came to the realization that trusted authorities did hurt children- really really hurt and damage children- and gaslight the communities that literally supported the church through personal sacrifice and sincere generosity- it was the absolute definition of disgrace and I am in agony that it was ever even tolerated.
"I realized..."
I couldn't figure out the difference between the abuse and manipulation of my family and that of my religion. Looking at it critically, I realized it's just abuse all the way down.
"Currently..."
Just lost interest. Currently i have no reason to believe, and no reason not to believe. God may or may not have created the Universe, it doesn't affect me. Just continue to live life day by day.
"However..."
I am atheist, but don't have a problem with people believing in god. Prayer is good for the most part, and religion gives comfort to billions of people.
However, the moment it is organized and taught as facts and forced on others or used to feel better than others, it becomes dangerous and often evil. The hypocracy to use religiin to justify anything more than trying to share faith calmly and peacefully makes me angry.
I wish that people could truly be spiritual without ever being bastards about it.
"Gettng deeply..."
Getting deeply involved in the church after a rough patch in my life. Started to work in the office, and quickly realized how it was all about money.
"I've developed many other issues..."
On Sundays I'd get to see other kids in Sunday School. I wasn't supposed to ask to go to their houses, but if I asked my parents in front of them or their parents sometimes they'd feel obligated to allow it. If they said no, I knew what was waiting for me when we got in the minivan in the church parking lot. But it was worth the small chance to be somewhere else with someone else for a few hours.
Seeing kindness preached, and seeing how much they appeared to agree and live by Christian ideals from 9-12 every Sunday, and then experiencing such an opposite the second the church couldn't see it.
That ruined religion for me. Not right then, but as I grew and I learned that true kindness comes without theistic intervention. It comes without reason, or expectation. Without reward.
I've developed many other issues with many religions, but I respect all those who follow their religions peacefully. Christians included.
"There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings."
"I will say to those of you..."
Man, there are A LOT of individuals in this thread that have been totally scarred and burned by religion in some sort or another. Sorry that there are so many hurting people in here.
I guess that is why it's so important for those who profess a specific faith to live out the faith that they are following. Not just offer lip service to their beliefs but to truly live it out in their daily lives. The moment that you aren't vertically aligned to an outsider (or someone following that same religion) it is going to immediately put that religion in a negative light.
I will say to those of you who have been burned to keep in mind that this entire world, every single person alive at this moment, is going to screw up. We're all imperfect humans trying to make it through life together and nobody is exempt from sinning and messing up. It doesn't matter if you're the Pope, a priest, a minister, a rabbi or any other sort of religious leader. They're all fallen creatures bound to mess up. That's why extending grace is so important but it by NO MEANS excuses those in a position of power and influence from abusing another person. Ever.
"They care more about their image..."
My parents. They're hypocritical, manipulative, abusive, gas lighting people. They care more about their image in church rather than the well being of their children. I don't hate that I grew up in a christian family nor do i regret on being a christian BUT i know hate going to church because people their especially the old ones are all the same. Self righteous hypocrites.
"Being told by the youth pastor..."
Being told by the youth pastor that science is right when it comes to science and evolution, but that I should ignore it and "learn to believe" anyway.
"I was raised Catholic..."
This question is a day old and probably nobody will see my answer, but I read most of the top comments and I'm baffled that nobody mentioned my reason to leave religion: the fact that most of them classifies women as inferior compared to men.
I was raised Catholic and I never understood why we couldn't have priestesses, or women in positions of power within the church. They were always answering to men one way or another. And of course all the religious mumbo jumbo about Eve being the first sinner, that women are essentially filthy because they menstruate, they must always obey their husbands, etc etc etc. Or the fact that God is always presented as a man even though it's genderless , or how convenient was that Jesus was a guy.
All of this started to get to me when I was becoming a teen, and it was my form of teenage rebellion - I didn't get drunk or did drugs or anything like that, I was actually a good girl. But if I caught a whiff of any rule being enforced on me "because you're a girl/woman", I'd rebel against it, however necessary. When I finished school, I never went back to church. I can't believe in anything that will affirm I'm less simply because of something I had no control over, this case my sex.
"So imagine..."
Christianity makes you paranoid, it forces the belief that there is this devil who will send you to hell for eternal suffering if you sin which i consider anti freedom. So imagine if you accidentally sin and are now forced to live with the idea that you will be in eternal pain when you die. This just makes your brain feel oppressed like you are forced to do what the god demands you to do, like that you dont matter and that you will soon die and suffer infinitely.
"Two people are on their death bed..."
I didn't grow up religious, so I never really believed in god. When I learned the word agnostic, I started describing myself that way. I now now that a better term would have been an agnostic atheist. Around the age of 20 I got a chance to spend some time with a religious family for a few days. On one of the long car rides they brought up religion and hit me with the following gem.
Two people are on their death bed with only a few minutes left to live. One was a doctor, traveled around the entire world saving lives, establishing clinics and doing many good deeds. The other is a murderer. They are both given a chance to accept Jesus into in their final moments. The murderer does so, but the doctor doesn't. The doctor goes to hell. The murderer goes to heaven.
Shorty after that trip, I bought "The God Delusion" by Dawkins and have since started to just identify as an atheist.
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Ah college. What a time to be alive.
The people who love to keep that party going are great.
But many have a bad Pater Pan complex and never learn to grow up.
Yet some end up on top of the world.
It's all a coin toss.
Redditorihaveaclip4urcliquewanted to share the tales about what happened to the life of the party after everyone grew up. They asked:
"College graduates of Reddit: What happened to that friend that never stopped partying?"
My life of the party people are dead and depressed. Cheers...
Yin & Yang
We Did It Win GIF by HBO MaxGiphy"One’s a doctor, one lives in a towable caravan."
Low_Corner_9061
"There doesn't seem to be a lot of middle ground in this thread."
space_monster
Tabs Up
"Worked at a bar in college, and friends worked at other bars. So I knew a lot of people who drank a lot. Most went on to be in sales or some other job where interpersonal communication skills are more valued than raw academic skills. Some do very well."
AmigoDelDiabla
"Bartended full or part time for 15 years now. It's funny those same people keep coming in to drink, but now it's with coworkers and clients and rack up huge tabs and tip the best."
Minimum_Attitude6707
Drink to the Top
"He drank with the right executives at a conference and got offered a job. He now makes three times what I do."
Moctor_Drignall
"I know someone this happened to as well! Our senior year I think she drunk-tweeted something and a company loved what she tweeted that they offered her a job. We graduated 11 years ago and she still works for them! (Although this kind of goes against the thread because she doesn't drink anywhere near as much anymore since she got married and started a family)."
PAKMan1988
Genius
"Ran into an old friend who was like that. We were in our late 30s when that happened and chatted; turned out he partied hard until late 30s and during that time, flitted around job to job to simply fund his partying. One day he looked around and noticed that he was the old guy at the bars hanging with early 20-somethings."
"He realized that all of the folks our age were ahead in their careers, with family/kids etc. Said that was a pretty sobering revelation and enrolled himself back into school and was in his 2nd year of engineering as he wanted to be an aerospace engineer."
rudebish
The Right Way
golden globes GIFGiphy"He partied with the right guys and now makes very good money in sales where he parties with clients but the company pays for it."
MySonHas2BrokenArms
Sometimes vodka works you all the way to the corner office. I'm on my way...
Never took off...
Drunk Vince Vaughn GIF by HBO MaxGiphy"He decided to do a commercial pilot license. Spent so much money on the training and the partying that his debts overtook him. Here, most airlines don't accept pilot candidates with outstanding debts or criminal records. He never got to fly a plane. He still owes a lot of people small to medium amounts of money. Accepted a menial job writing technical manuals."
Ruggiard
The Mess
"I lived in a house with a bunch of guys. One of them was in electrical engineering. He got a job at Applebees for some extra cash and started having parties with work people after work (so 3-5am). That made it hard to make class so he dropped a semester."
"We all graduated and he said he would refocus on school soon, but he was having too much fun partying. I went back to college 20 years later for a football game. He is still working as a waiter at Applebees. He is the creepy guy who acts like he is best friends a with a bunch of 20 year old kids. He’s a mess."
alpacasarebadsingers
Tragic
"He never stopped. He continued drinking at a crazy pace, and lost his job, his driving license, and his wife. He had to move near to a liquor store to keep drinking. He was found dead on the floor of his apartment from a hemorrhage in his stomach caused by years of alcohol abuse. He bled to death from within. He left behind two sons."
SpaceLaserPilot
'dedicated party house'
"A friend of mine in college pulled a Van wilder, and spent 7 total years in college (just getting his undergrad) because he liked the partying so much. He lived in the college 'dedicated party house' that had just two modes, actively throwing a wild party, or recovering from the latest party."
"What was wild about him was that even though he lived a party lifestyle, he got excellent grades and took phenomenal care of himself (when he wasn't getting black out wasted and having weird sexcapades), and was the person who got me into running/marathoning."
"Eventually, he finally graduated with a degree in Mechanical engineering, moved to the east coast, got married and became a born again Christian. He seems happy and successful and just had his first kid recently, but its absolutely weird seeing him post pictures of him getting adult baptized and doing mission work."
GlastonBerry48
Unrecognizable
Sad Lonely GIF by PokémonGiphy"He overdosed, blacked out and fell off a balcony at a hotel and hit the pavement so hard his mother couldn’t recognize him."
Impressive-Orchid748
The party has to end sometime. When the lights come on... go home. That's clearly a general life lesson as well.
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We don't often think about how effective many of the items we purchase are–whether we buy them out of necessity or for leisure.
We just expect many of the accessible items like home goods or kitchen appliances to work the way they should without giving a second thought to their impressive feat of engineering.
But when you actually consider how many of the mass-produced items for sale are extremely well made, we might have a newfound appreciation for these products.
Curious to hear specific examples, Redditor Gourmet-Guy asked:
"Which cheap and mass-produced item is stupendously well engineered?"
These practical tools are a marvel.
They've Been Crushing It
"Soda/beer cans. The design has existed for decades with few changes."
"It’s a way of using a relatively small amount of cheap metal to withstand the pressure of carbonated beverages with a reliable opening mechanism."
"During pandemic I also noticed that some companies stopped using thicker material on the upper ‘ridge’ of the can, probably due to supply shortages. They instead used a sort of stepped system that appeared to be almost as strong."
– Die_woofer
Porcelain Throne
"Toilets. I've been a plumber 20 years and very little has changed, or needed to."
"Minimal up keep, cheap and easy repair, very long life."
– RPO1728
Stackable Wonders
"The intermodal shipping container, a/k/a the Connex box. There are millions of the damned things all over the world, in use every single day. They are stackable, can be locked together, attach readily to ships, truck trailer frames, and rail cars, and can bear enormous loads."
"The cost of their manufacture compared to their economic use value over their useful lives is next to nothing."
– MrBarraclough
Fascinating Fasteners
"Zip ties - such a simple piece of plastic but so versatile. I have one of the old fashioned chain link fences, some of the fasteners on the middle poles broke and in high winds the fence was swaying like crazy. A half dozen zip ties on the three posts and it doesn’t budge and nobody even knows they’re there"
– larryb78
How did people camp in the early days without these useful tricks?
They're Lit
"Matches are underappreciated because people don't really understand how complex a match and striker are."
"From the Encyclopedia Britannica...."
"The head of a match uses antimony trisulfide for fuel. Potassium chlorate helps that fuel burn and is basically the key to ignition, while ammonium phosphate prevents the match from smoking too much when it's extinguished. Wax helps the flame travel down the matchstick and glue holds all the stuff together. The dye-- well, that just makes it look pretty. On the striking surface, there's powdered glass for friction and red phosphorus to ignite the flame."
"Now, the fun stuff-- striking a match against the powdered glass on the matchbox creates friction. Heat from this friction converts the red phosphorus into white phosphorus. That white phosphorus is extremely volatile and reacts with oxygen in the air, causing it to ignite. All this heat ignites the potassium chlorate, creating the flame you see here."
"Oxidizers, like potassium chlorate, help fuels burn by giving them more oxygen. This oxygen combines with antimony trisulfide to produce a long-lasting flame so you have enough time to light a candle. The whole thing is coated with paraffin wax, which helps the flame travel down the match. Just don't burn the house down."
"As antimony oxidizes, sulfur oxides form, creating that burnt-match scent. The smoke you're seeing is actually tiny unburned particles resulting from an incomplete combustion. Individually, they're a little bit too small to see but grouped together, they form smoke. There's also some water vapor in there."
"By the way, all the stuff that we're explaining in 90 seconds, it all happens within tenths of a second. Chemistry's fast."
– SultanOfSwave
Insta Flame
"The lighter."
"Spontaneously ignite fire basically whenever you want.."
– LefterisLegend
It's electric!
So Efficient, So Cool
"Not exactly cheap, but I'm impressed that I can have a ceiling fan run on high for 15 years straight and not have it explode on me."
– FadeToOne
The Transistor
"I remember how amazed we were in 1985 to see a chip with 68,000 transistors. Now they’re at 68 billion."
– chriswaco
Back In The Day...
"My favorite part was in school my professor talking about how they used to do the layouts on transparencies by hand."
"Or how during Apollo the guidance aspect of the program was buying up a significant portion of the national production capacity of transistors."
– giritrobbins
Portable Power
"Batteries are marvels of engineering packed tightly into a miniscule canister, even AA batteries are incredibly sophisticated internally."
– HuntertheGoose
We take many everyday objects around us for granted.
Now imagine what life would be like without any of the examples above existing.
Life would be significantly different, amirite?
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It's always heart-wrenching when a loved one passes away. You can't make any more memories with that person, you won't be able to see or talk to them again, and you won't be able to learn anything more about them... or so you think.
While it's true that you won't see your relative again, that doesn't mean you stop learning things about them. My aunt played six instruments, spoke nine languages, and made the hair spray she used to give me. I never knew any of that until after she passed. It made me see her in a whole new way. I also inherited her journal, which included the formula to make that hair spray.
There are plenty of opportunities to learn about someone you've lost. Sometimes you learn something good, sometimes bad, and sometimes just plain hilarious.
That's probably the inspiration behind Redditor HarryHolmes68's question.
He asked:
"What did you find out about one of your loved ones after they passed away?"
Made From A Grandmother's Secret Recipe
"Wow my Nana had a famous chicken stew wouldn’t share it at all. After she died my grandfather admitted it was just canned creamy chicken soup some veggies and KFC chicken. I make it now but no wonder it had a certain taste it was KFC chicken"
– Megalush
"That my grandmother lied about all her recipes"
"I used to ask for copies of recipes of my favorites but I could never make it taste right. I'd cook things with her that when I did it with her helping never tasted right. Always got the "oh don't worry, it takes practice". Thought I was just a terrible cook for years. When clearing out her home after she passed away recently, my dad found a secret stash of recipes very well hidden. Turns out all the "copies" she wrote for us were wrong, deliberately. I'm 43 and just started making these recipes again off her secret stash recipes and wouldn't you know, I can make them so they taste they way they should."
– eczblack
"I grew up loving the meatballs in gravy my grandma would make at the holidays. Turns out I just loved frozen meatballs in Heinz gravy from a jar."
– DeadMansPizzaParty
A Beautiful Life
"My uncle was the gentlest, most kind hearted man I knew. Always joking with us kids and making everyone laugh. He married into the family and was loved by everyone."
"On the day of his funeral, the minister started talking about how he grew up. Then the minister continued on to the part no one, not even my aunt knew. She knew he was in the army in WWII but, nothing about what he did."
"He was a combat medic. Landed on Omaha beach. Everyone in the room was silent, awestruck, by this revelation. The weight he must have carried thru his life, refusing to tell anyone, not even his wife of 50 years."
"I realized he had seen the worst of life, been thru a literal hell on earth and chose to make everyone else's lives better because of it. Still brings a tear to my eye 18 years later."
– DihtdtscIdgara
And A True Villain
"My maternal grandmother was a con artist and lived life on the run since she was 21 years old. I have since uncovered 7 different marriage certificates around different states, marrying different men, and I suppose funding her lifestyle. I also believe she abducted my mother from a hospital as we’ve found her real birth mother now, aged 91. It’s an insane story I’ve uncovered."
– YUHMTX
Remember The Name
"My dad passed when I was 6yo. He loved golf. My single mom couldn’t afford to put me in it but I used to dabble at the local park. Finally, in college I could afford the uni rate of $200 all summer (‘92). One night I went out and joined two older guys. They saw my last name on my tag and asked if I was Joe’s kid. I was. I spent those 9 holes learning about him crashing his Aston Martin, hitch hiking cross Canada with just his wallet (that I am using right now!), and how much he could drink! But they didn’t leave out the fact that his crazy partying days ended when he met mom. That happened 30yrs this summer, heck maybe to the week!, but I’m still tearing up finishing this post."
– justaspoonthanks
The Family Keeps Growing
"Uncle Ingram was apparently a sperm donor back in the 1950s. New cousins pop up on 23andme every couple of years."
– Vampilton
Found Family
"I was kicked out at 16, my best friends mother took me in as her own, she died yesterday, my best friend sent me a picture of her photo album titled, “my sons” and it was just pictures of my best friend and me. It’s been a pretty emotional last 24 hours."
– Iian8787
Everyone Deserves A Chance
"My grandfather was a bank executive at a small bank in a farm town in Arkansas. After his death my mother found a ledger in his safety deposit box. He made loans to people the bank had denied due to background, type of employment and/or skin color. He made the loans from his own pocket. Most of the loans were between $200 to $500. He charged a nominal percentage rate and everything he earned in interest he donated to the church. My grandmother had no idea and was heartwarmed when she found out. He died in 1972."
– username987654321a
A Secret Life
"Oh ok I got this one"
"My mom’s late boyfriend. Really great guy. Colon cancer and passed at age 54. He was a lifelong firefighter after the army. He joked all the time about being a spy in Vietnam. Always joked about having a third degree black belt. Just on and on"
"You never knew if you could take him seriously"
"So he passed. Sad times of course. I help mom clean out his house. We find his old war chest from the Spanish American War. Was passed down"
"Opened it up and god damn…I start finding all sorts of papers marked Top Secret. All sorts of coded messages. I could make out bits of things but it was in verbiage I didn’t understand"
"And hey look there is a black belt that is rather old"
"He wasn’t lying the whole time"
– DaniTheLovebug
The Real Life Tommy and Tuppence
"My Grandmother passed a couple of years ago. She was in her 90’s; a wonderful, bright, classy lady whom I loved. She worked in strike command in the war (the girls moving the model planes on the big maps in the WW2 films), then worked at Bletchley Park towards the end of the war (it is known for being a major centre for allied codebreaking) and then when the war ended she went to work at the Coal Board (government organisation that managed the procurement and distribution of a critical resource at the time) where she met my Grandfather."
"I started reading John Le Carre novels a few years ago after seeing one next to my Grandfather’s chair when visiting. In one book (I forget which) the ‘Coal Board’ is used as a euphemism for the secret service. I formed a theory that my Grandmother worked in British Intelligence in the years after the war, and so did my Grandfather."
"Earlier this year I visited my Grandad; now in his mid 90’s, still heartbroken after losing his great love but doing much better now. We were chatting about my Grandmother over a cuppa and I told him my theory. He looked me dead in the eye and said ‘well it’s about time someone worked it out’. When I mentioned the theory to my Dad some weeks later he suddenly seemed to be flustered and changed the subject very quickly…"
– Ordinary_Shallot_674
A True Hero
My maternal grandmother we found after she had passed was using 10% of her income to sponsor unfortunate kids all over the world. She had been doing it for the last 40 years of her life nonstop. We found letters of her giving those kids advice, and then keeping in contact with them pretty much their whole lives. She received pictures of them growing up, and having families."
"Essentially, my grandmother had far more than 5 kids. She helped to raise, and more grandchildren and great grandchildren than we ever knew. Most of the kids she sponsored were orphans. We spent the next several months after her death getting in touch with all these people. Some managed to attend her funeral, some to this day made a trip to where we spread her ashes, and sent us photos of them there."
"We knew she was a saint to us, but we didn't know she was a Saint to hundreds of children spanning 4 decades."
– sicurri
What a beautiful thing to learn!
It's never easy losing someone, but with lessons or secrets like these waiting, they can live on in your heart.
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The convenience of flight comes with a few expected inconveniences. First, your seat is never going to feel like it's big enough for you. Second, the person either in front of or behind you is going to put their feet up or lean their seat too far back. And, third, you have to roll the dice with the TSA checkpoints.
They scan you, check your baggage, send you on your way. Installed as a form of protection, they do their jobs before you even arrive at the airport, keeping very obvious weapons and dangerous minded individuals from boarding your flight.
Most of the time.
Reddit user, False_Philosophy_412, asked:
"What’s the weirdest reason you were stopped by TSA?"
Most of the time, the agents are doing their best job to figure out what's on your body with a machine that may not be accurate 100% of the time.
It Already Has A Name
"Crotch anomaly".
"I was wearing normal joggers, nothing in my pockets."
"The lady behind me loudly said 'yeah it's called a penis'"
wot_in_ternation
Packing A Different Kind Of Heat
"This happened to me too. Tsa agent asked to search me with the back of his hand and I said “okay sure.” The back of his hand hit my unit and he said “what’s that?” to which my only response was “That’d be my penis.” The TSA woman next to him started laughing at him and his face went pale before he said 'you’re clear, move along.'"
DarkSlayerKi
Keyword: "Random"
"I have maintained a decent beard and have a darker skin complexion for a white dude. I am "randomly" selected for a search or shoe swab every single time I fly."
batkevn
You can assume a lot of these are simple misunderstandings, agents doing their best to make sure everyone gets on the plane safely.
Still, it's got to feel bad to open up a loved one's ashes in a public setting.
Mad Respect For Your Wardrobe
"Not in the USA but in France, I got stopped on the way through customs by an agent who said something fast and aggressive-sounding in French. My French isn't great, so I just looked puzzled and said I didn't understand. The guy quickly beckoned another guy over and explained to him in rapid-fire French what was going on. The second guy turned to me and said "He says your T-shirt is really cool and can you tell him where you got it?". It was a Star Wars T-shirt that I got as a birthday present, so I couldn't even tell him where it came from. Luckily, he didn't arrest me."
99thLuftballon
Sinister Teddy
"My niece has a teddy bear. She has had this teddy bear essentially since she was born. The doggo has bitten a hole into its belly, so we sew onto it like a lion head sticker, to keep its guts inside. One time we were on holiday visiting family, and she left it there, luckily I was staying a bit longer so I could grab it on my way back."
"An adult man with a teddy bear that had its guts torn open and fixed with a lion bandaid apparently looks pretty suspicious, so they shoved the poor guy into x-ray 3-4 times. She is still in ownership of the teddy bear and it is still in decent shape."
Gacsam
It's A Weapon For A Certain Type Of Person...
"I had a nutcracker in my carry-on. Like a legit, festive Christmas soldier nutcracker - it was a gift for my mom's birthday (she collects them). I was only flying in for 2 days for my grandmas funeral so didn't check any luggage. They stopped me and questioned me for 30 minutes. Kept insinuating I was going to use it as a weapon."
Pamplem0usse__
Spider Truck. Spider Truck. Does Whatever A...
"When the Andrew Garfield Spiderman's first came out they did some amazing merch for them."
"My Stepdad is a HUGE Spidey fan, so I picked him up the corniest Spiderman film merch when in the US, one of those being like a whirling cement truck thing? It was a big tonka sized thing and the only bag it would fit in was my carry-on. They stopped me and said "Is that a spiderman toy?" and I took it out and showed them. They said it was the best thing they'd seen all day."
CharacterSuccotash5
No Smuggling Of Animals
"Glass jellyfish"
"Like those blown glass ones that are super cool at art galleries."
"I got pulled aside into a small room because they thought I was smuggling sea life. Was an interesting time."
Aelsar
When Things Look Like Other Things
"One time my dad had a few rocks of petrified wood in a bag, and had his phone charger right next to it."
"They almost went DEFCON 1 and did radio people to show up and act if it went down. But they opened the bag and saw it was rocks and a charger. They told him that it looked absolutely identical to what they had been taught a bomb looked like."
AudiieVerbum
One Last Look For Ol' Mom
"My mom passed away unexpectedly in California. I flew out to pick up her ashes and there was a terror alert at LAX. It was unreal; the military was in the airport with what looked like machine guns. I was out of my mind with grief and drugged to the gills. I was dealing with a bad back, and had to fly from California to a small town in Virginia for the memorial service. Security was heightened and everyone was being searched. I only had a small carry on and my mom’s ashes. When I got to the TSA, the agent wanted me to open my mother’s box of ashes! "
"I refused and insisted they x ray the box instead. It showed nothing inside ( duh- ashes) which convinced the TSA agent that it had some sort of cloaking device and was hiding a bomb. Again he insisted that I open the box that held my mom’s ashes. I was beginning to lose my sh-t. I called my husband who works in nuclear power and explained what was going on. He told me to tell the TSA agent to place a coin under the box and send it through the X-ray again. He did and thank goodness he saw the coin. Otherwise I would have been arrested for assaulting a stupid TSA agent."
Due_Judgment_9518
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