That’s one way to make a baggage screening slither sideways.
TSA officers at a California airport got an unexpected shock when a routine luggage check uncovered two live snakes stuffed inside a passenger’s pillowcase, including one rattlesnake.
The bizarre discovery unfolded at Ontario International Airport, where TSA Officer Benjamin Andrade-Carillo initially thought he was handling a bundle of rope.
But then it moved.
“When I realized the item in my hand was alive, I told myself, ‘I need to escalate this immediately,’” Andrade-Carillo recalled.
He alerted Supervisory TSA Officer Suggey Flores, who arrived to inspect the bag.
“I felt it tense up and start moving,” Flores said. “I have held snakes before, so I wasn’t too spooked. I was more impressed, because it’s not something you see every day.”
ONT TSA Manager Francisco “Frank” Calderon subsequently confirmed there were two live snakes inside, one of them a rattlesnake.
Airport police and the passenger’s airline were notified, and screening was temporarily stopped in the immediate area while officers assessed the danger.
“Safety was a concern because we didn’t know what kind of snakes they were,” Flores said. “They could have been venomous.”
Police took possession of the bag and brought it to the airline ticketing area, where the passenger removed the reptiles and handed them to a family member who was not traveling.
According to the Los Angeles TSA Coordination Center, the passenger said the snakes were pets and that he had previously traveled with them on another airline.
Once the snakes were removed, TSA rescreened the bag and cleared it for travel. The passenger was allowed to fly without the reptiles.
No injuries or bites were reported, and airport-wide screening operations were not disrupted.
“In my two years of service, I had not found anything like this,” Andrade-Carillo said. “In San Diego, I experienced a gentleman trying to bring live lobsters as a carry-on.”
TSA advises travelers to check with their airlines before arriving at the airport to understand the rules for flying with pets, including reptiles.
“We ask the traveling public to be mindful of what they bring in their bags,” Andrade-Carillo said, “because if we don’t know what it is, we will find out.”
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