NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A man was stopped from boarding a plane at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday when his homemade cigar humidor was mistaken for a pipe bomb.
According to the Transportation Security Administration, screeners found the device in the man’s carry-on luggage in the afternoon.
Inside the bag, TSA agents found two torch-style lighters along with a homemade container made out of nine-inch long PVC pipe and end caps, which resembled a pipe bomb.
When agents removed the cap, they found a partially smoked cigar inside.
According to the TSA, the traveler, a resident of Dutchess County, told officials he crafter the humidor at home to preserve his cigars.
Officials told the man that the item resembled a pipe bomb too closely and he could not carry it onto the plane. He surrendered the item to TSA for disposal along with the lighters.
Robert Duffy, TSA’s Federal Security Director for LaGuardia Airport, thanks agents for their thorough work.
“Our TSA officers are vigilant about looking for explosive devices, and this certainly gave the impression that it could be a pipe bomb that someone was attempting to carry onto an aircraft,” he said. “Fortunately, it turned out not to be an explosive device, but had he pulled it out during his flight, it could have caused a panic.”
Duffy notes that replica weapons are not permitted on airplane and the homemade humidor “could have passed for an improvised explosive device.”
“It was a good catch on the part of the officers who were staffing the checkpoint,” Duffy said.