What the Cluck? TSA Finds Gun in Raw Chicken

(CNN) – A gun found inside a raw chicken at an airport security checkpoint has the TSA calling “personal fowl.”

“The plot chickens,” the Transportation Security Administration posted this week on Instagram after someone at the agency put on their punny pants and called attention to the “baste of time” that is stuffing a bird with a firearm.

The passenger was headed to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, according to Sari Koshetz, a TSA spokesperson for the Gulf region.

Nestor Iglesias, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of the US Department of Homeland Security, said he could not offer additional details because it is an “ongoing criminal case which has been accepted for prosecution.”

A record number of guns arrived at TSA checkpoints in Florida in 2022. Passengers have brought more than 700 guns to checkpoints at airports in the state so far this year – a year-to-date number that already surpasses any previous year, according to a TSA news release.

Records have been set at 12 Florida airports, with airports in Orlando (129 guns), Fort Lauderdale (120 guns), and Tampa (102 guns) leading the way.

Nearly all the guns discovered at checkpoints were loaded, the TSA said, and most had ammunition chambered.

“An accidental discharge could result in tragedy,” the TSA's Koshetz said in a statement. “Every passenger bares the responsibility of knowing exactly where their gun is before entering the security checkpoint.”

For many passengers, bringing guns to airports resulted in arrests and notices to appear in court.

Civil penalties from the TSA can reach $13,910 even if the passenger is not arrested, the TSA’s news release said.

Firearms must be packed in checked luggage. The TSA outlines specific rules related to guns and ammunition on its website.

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