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Dude....Just frickin no.

Man threatened with arrest at Heathrow for wearing Transformers T-shirt| News | This is London

I'm so stunned at the audacity of this that...I honestly don't have anything I could say.

Well it was Heathrow Siberys, you know the National Embarrassment, that couldn't organise a piss-up, er drinking spree, in a brewery. Add that to the effects giving any moron who applies a job as a security guard, and dumbass crap like that is bound to happen. Just be thankful you weren't one of the unfortunate souls who had to transit through there in the weeks after opening the new terminal!

British Airports Authority didn't use to be that bad, once upon a time they were reasonably efficient and fairly customer conscious (with occasional hiccups), that was before profitisation of course. One can't expect a company who's only motive is profit to be as customer friendly as a not for profit organisation, sad, but that's how it goes when The Bottom Line is all that matters and customers can take a hike if they don't like it.

It isn't just Heathrow, though they say it's the worst. I flew back from Glasgow 14 days ago on a business trip, and I swear I nearly went Viking on a female "security" harpy who wanted to confiscate my card-holder because it looked "sharp" whatever that means. Thankfully her superintendent was an older guy who could probably read and write his own name, or things could have become messy. It's like roving gangs of them just hanging around being bored and waiting to stir up trouble. Seriously, I've seen some bad immigration officers (try entering the USA in Houston, coming from Mexico... ..or try entering Switzerland with long hair and carrying a guitarcase.... ) but what's going on in the UK right now is seriously going to damage both the tourist trade and business-relations. It's like something out of the movie V For Vendetta, a completely fascist paramilitary dystopia. They take the most abusive chavs they can find, put them in a uniform and give them free reins to do what they bloody well like. A fat boiler with a bad tattoo can stir up seven shades of manure for me, and there isn't a single thing I can do about it, except hope her caveman co-workers don't decide to kick the living daylights out of me because they don't like my face. It's gonna get worse before it gets better.

At least the guy was able to catch his plane by replacing his shirt with one in his bag. Although, the ridiculousness of the situation was kind of amusing.

Between this and the amount of senseless lawsuits over simple issues that go around, it shows how overly sensitive the world is today.

Oh, and Siberys, I don't know if anyone else has pointed that out, but that's an Optimus Prime t-shirt, not Megatron.

Ahh, I see. Yeah, looking closer, I definitely see Prime in it.

Galuf the Dwarf wrote:Oh, and Siberys, I don't know if anyone else has pointed that out, but that's an Optimus Prime t-shirt, not Megatron.

I was wondering about how long it would take before someone else noticed that. Bearing in mind the original Megatron turned into a replica firearm I can (very loosely) see why a t-shirt with old Megsy might be (mis)construed as 'offensive', or at leats not plane-appropriate. But this is kinda ridiculous IMO.

I'm thinking of getting an "Australia: love it or leave it" Tshirt for my next sojourn abroad.

I have a shirt that says "Team Satan 666 Go Satan, Go!" in very large letters. I think I'm getting that out of the closet for my next flight...:mischief: Just to check if they're gonna discriminate me for my religious views....

"He said there was no record of the incident and the passenger 'certainly didn't make a formal complaint at the time.'"

This is unverified. Nor was it transmitted as news from a reputable news distribution source, such as Reuters, AP, UPI, or Agent France Presse. And the implied message of the photo is that this was the t-shirt the guy was wearing at the time, when it wasn't. (Thanks, Galuf. Good catch.) In fact, it looks like he's trying to give the impression of having been caught on camera at the airport.

All of which leads me to discount the story.

I wouldn't say the report implied that the shirt in the photo was the one he wore at the incident. The report directly says it was indeed the shirt he wore. The story seems to refer to the character on his shirt as optimus and megatron, only at different points. An obvious error on someone's behalf. I don't think there is enough to suggest that this wasn't the shirt he wore.

Caden wrote:I wouldn't say the report implied that the shirt in the photo was the one he wore at the incident. The report directly says it was indeed the shirt he wore. The story seems to refer to the character on his shirt as optimus and megatron, only at different points. An obvious error on someone's behalf. I don't think there is enough to suggest that this wasn't the shirt he wore.

You're right. More online reading has revealed this.

After reading some better informed reports, I'm inclined to believe the man's report, both of what he was wearing, and what happened. That said, I don't see how it makes what the Gatwick guards are doing any less important. If they step over the bounds ridiculously like this, it's not something that happens every day. They were polite about it, though the whole thing has the feeling of Alice in the Looking Glass. And at least it doesn't have the air of corporate dementia without any reason at all that you can find right here. The first is an example of security going a little crazed--or perhaps, as though Gatwick were in Geneva. The second is simply ridiculous.

Right, I think I was just pointing out something minute and irrelevant in that post. My bad.