NARRATOR: At Baltimore
Washington International, Chris Ford and his family
are flying to North Carolina. They are carrying over
30 liters of liquor, and Beth won't
allow it on board. We can't take
more than 5 liters. And it has to be packed in a
Styrofoam box in order for us to take it. CHRIS FORD: But I
wasn't told that. OK.
I understand that. CHRIS FORD: You
know what I mean? I apologize for that. But unfortunately-- CHRIS FORD: Apologizing
isn't going to help you. I need to get--
I need to get on the plane. AGENT: The only
thing I can think of is that we can confirm
you on a later flight and that you guys
can try and send it FedEx or some other way. But we cannot accept
the packages like this. Is there someone
else I can talk to? Because I wasn't told that. AGENT: Well, I am
the supervisor here. CHRIS FORD: Yeah, but I--
I called you. When I purchased my ticket, I
called to confirm this twice. AGENT: OK.
- So I mean-- AGENT: That's what I'm saying. I'm not sure if there was
a misunderstanding or not. But--
- Well, that's not my fault. We can only take the-- CHRIS FORD: That's
not my concern. NARRATOR: We can only
take the 5 liters, and they have to be
in a Styrofoam box. We can't take them just like
that, full of-- full of liquor, though.
- Well, I was told you can. I mean, so when I'm up
here, you're telling me now this is-- it's too late. I got a flight in 30 minutes. We do have a function that
is going on later on today. And we're sitting
here now, asking about taking a later flight. I don't think that's right. AGENT: I apologize
for that, you guys. I'm sorry about the
misunderstanding. But you apologize, but
what are we going to do? CHRIS FORD: That's
not going to help resolve my issue right now.
AGENT: Well, that's the only-- I mean, I wish I had a
different option for you guys. But the only option
we have is that we can book you on a later flight. And you guys can try and send
it FedEx or any other way or have somebody pick it up. You have to make some
kind of reservation on whatever you have to do
for us to take this trip. You can't take this much
liquor on board with you. NARRATOR: Back at BWI,
the fate of the liquor is still unresolved. We have a function going
on in a couple of hours. And you're telling us we
got to miss our function? We're going in a
burial situation. We're not going for fun. And this is not-- and right now we're
getting upset. NARRATOR: Manager Aaron is
called to the situation. [radio chatter] They need to have more
protection around them. I'm sorry you got the
wrong information. Well, we have a funeral.
I mean-- MANAGER: Right. This is very emotional. MANAGER: I know.
I'm sorry. CHRIS FORD: I mean, you'd
think the first person at your company-- I mean, the best
thing you can do is just put them
back in your car. Yeah, but I need them with me. I can't put them back in my car. I'm just trying to
give you more options. Yeah, but put it in my
car-- how is that an option? That's the only option
there is at the time. I'm not gonna sit there
and drink all that for me. It's for an occasion. All right. We're gonna have to
work something out. This is not gonna work out. NARRATOR: Back at BWI,
Chris and his family are still at a standoff. WOMAN: What could
guys do to help us? And we need this stuff. We're going on a
burial function. We're supposed to catch
the plane in 20 minutes. CHRIS FORD: I'm
missing my flight. We're missing our flight,
and we're sitting here arguing. And there's no help at all. It's like you got to
go put-- no, no, no. There's no way that we
can take the box like this. There's absolutely no way. If you guys land
and the boxes break, they're going to be on 137
other passengers' bags. MANAGER: If it's for today-- NARRATOR: With no other options
and a funeral to attend, they decide to leave
the liquor in Baltimore and board a later flight. We're going to fly
because we have a funeral. We have a dead body
laying there that we got to-- we got to go to. So then we'll take care of
what we need to take care of. Right now, we're not even
having any-- this is it. NARRATOR: At LAX,
Thomas Lubbering is carrying a torch lighter. Since 9/11, this type of lighter
is not permitted on flights. He wants Southwest to
hold it until his return. No, it's not expensive. It's just I've had
it for 20, 15 years. So why can't we make
arrangements that this would be-- we have a place. And if we don't pick
it up within 60 days-- But, unfortunately, if we
kept everybody's lighters-- - Right.
- --that came through here-- - Hundreds of thousands a day?
- Right. I don't think so. So it's your
suggestion to hire somebody just to take care of
things you can't take through? The little incidentals
with these people that used to never be a
problem, and now it's a problem. But, unfortunately,
with all the changes after 9/11 and everything,
and these couldn't-- But these terrorists
are affecting everybody. And it's not right that the
little stuff like this-- because I could have matches. So where's the locker? Don't they have lockers
that are a quarter, and you put a locker--
- Not since 9/11. Nothing that-- Everything's gone away. The mailboxes are sealed. There are no mailboxes here. People used to just mail
things back to themselves. They can't do that anymore. Those are sealed. The lockers are sealed. And those are all things
that are beyond our control as a carrier using this airport. This is really a catastrophe. And how many people are upset
every day because of this? NARRATOR: Back at LAX, Thomas
has a theory as to what happens to confiscated torch lighters. Let me ask you something. Don't you sell
everybody's lighter and everybody's pocket knife? You got him up there by the ton. And then you have
a big auction and-- AGENT: No.
That's TSA. Southwest Airlines is not-- THOMAS LUBBERING:
That's what I'm saying. So somebody's
making money on it. AGENT: I don't know that
they sell those items. Yeah, they do. AGENT: I don't
know what they do. They sell them.
AGENT: They confiscate them. I know that much.
I don't know what they do. That's right. And then they sell them
by the pound or whatever. And so somebody's making money. You might want to ask
them what they do with them. But I know they confiscate them. But I don't know what
they do after that. OK. So that's my memory and
history, and it's now yours. Right?
And that's no options. There's no here's our receipt. You don't get it. You can't claim it. It's not even an option anymore. Right. The TSA upstairs,
if you would like, has a bin that
people put stuff in. And you're more than
welcome to put it up there so that you
don't have to give it to Southwest Airlines.
- Well, it's not that. It's just that-- I mean, we also
don't want the items because then it's
our responsibility to dispose of them. All right. Well, that's just exasperating. I know that--
- I apologize. - I know it's not you.
- I know. - You didn't make the rules.
- I'm so sorry. I feel like I'm in
a foreign country now. And that really is annoying. And it's not something
that I've created. It's something that
someone else has created and really pushed
me to where I went, what is going wrong. He hasn't found
that much since 9/11, and a lot of the
rules have changed. And he was unaware, so we just
wanted to try to educate him. So leave these at home unless
you pack it in your luggage. But you probably should
just leave it at home. NARRATOR: Over in
LAX baggage services, Mike's found a mysterious
bottle in the bag of a man heading south of the border. Here, a gentleman
has a bottle of stuff. It's not marked. I believe it might be, like,
moonshine or something. So it can't go. If it's not marked,
we can't transport it. So--
- [speaking spanish] Guillermo, what is this? It's like a tequila. It's like a tequila? Yes. - Did you make it?
- [speaking spanish] - No.
- No? OK.
You can't ship this. You can't ship this like this. If you ship alcohol, it has
to be in a proper bottle. Not a proper-- oh, OK. So what do you want
me to do with it? [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] He doesn't have
anybody to leave it with. PASSENGER: [speaking spanish] So you want me
to throw it away? - Yeah.
- OK. - [speaking spanish]
- So it's-- PASSENGER: [speaking spanish]
- OK. So have you
tried this tequila? Yeah, it really good? Mucho bueno, yeah.
[laughs] AGENT: Mucho bueno? Yes. [speaking spanish] Gracias. - Gracias.
- OK. - All right.
- Gracias. [speaking spanish] So he wants to surrender it. So, I mean, I like tequila,
but I wouldn't drink something that's not in a marked bottle. NARRATOR: Just as tequila
fan Guillermo Moran thought it was safe to get
on his plane, booze hound Mike sniffs out more of
Mexico's most famous export. Yeah, we can't-- you
can't put it in your bag. You're going to have to
carry it on with you. You like tequila, huh? Mucho tequila. Mucho tequila. All right. Do you have a bag or anything? No. OK. So you're able to--
let me just make sure. There you go. The reason why is because you
can't put this in your bag because if the bag gets-- breaks, there'd be tequila--
mucho tequila everywhere. We can't have that. So you can carry this on, but
you can't open it on the plane. All right. What's this? This is tequila too?
- Small. Small. You got all sizes, huh?
- Yeah. All right.
All right, guy. - Gracias.
- All right. Adios. He loves tequila. That's for sure. You know, from my town Mexico,
Gudalajara, Jalisco, is-- they make the tequila
over there, you know. Yeah. And I bring it because I
went to that party, you know, Mexican party. My friends bring me
that bottle, but-- NARRATOR: Guillermo's
hooch is in the hands of party pooper Mike. But what's going to happen to
Señor Moran's special tequila? Are you going to try it? He had two more bottles
of tequila in his bag. It's party time. I'm opening it because I'm
pouring it down the sink. Don't pour it in the sink. Raffle it. [interposing voices] WOMAN: Oh, my god. [interposing voices] I care about you too
much to give this to you. WOMAN: I will save it. You don't know what's in that,
how much alcohol's in there. I would not give
that to anybody. And you all being
smart individuals, I know you wouldn't
want it really. You're just messing with me. Smart is the key word. NARRATOR: At Baltimore
Washington International, Chris has spotted a
potential security threat-- unattended bags. Well, I'll tell you what. They certainly do like I
Can't Believe It's Not Butter. I can't believe it's unattended. It's just some unattended
bags that we need to figure out whose bags these are. Otherwise, we have
them confiscated. I'll look for a
name on the bag just so we can call them
overhead and see if we can get him down here. It's written in some language. I don't think this is
what's going to help us. Well, as soon as we find
that it's unattended, we will take the proper
actions in calling the police. It's Chris Moore at Southwest. How are you? We have some unattended
bags at Charlie 9, C-9. NARRATOR: Back at BWI,
Chris has called the police but stands by the
unattended bags. I'll keep an eye
on them and wait for the Maryland Transportation
Authority Police to come down. Hello.
- How you doing? How are you? These are our unattended
bags, the blanket and the bag full of I Can't
Believe It's Not Butter. I kind of think this
person's still here. This is an awful big
package just to leave here. You're taking them up? Thank you so much. But, I mean, it's
just impressive that somebody would actually
accumulate eight tubs of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. I mean, that's a lot of
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter they're going through. I mean, it would take
me probably a month or two months just to
go through one tub of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. Oh, that's her. NARRATOR: At BWI, the mystery
owner of the unattended bags appears. Where is it? You left your bags unattended. The police came and
confiscated them. [non-english speech] The police came, OK? And they took them away. Took all of them? Took them all away. What do I do next? What time does
your plane leave? I come here. They say it's 1:30. Oh, 1:30.
OK. Sorry.
I sit down here. I said, let me go
and get a drink. Get some milk, yeah. Well, I'll tell you what. They took your bags to the lost
and found, which is downstairs. I'm very hungry. So I went to buy this thing. So I stayed there and ate it. They take away. Come here, I was
looking for it to sit there and wait till 1:30. You're taking the I Can't
Believe It's Not Butter? Yes! With butter? With butter. It's true, with butter. Do you want me to go show you
where the lost and found is? - OK.
- We're going to have to go-- What of-- what of this one? This, you got to take it
with you unless they're going to come and take that again. OK. They will come
and take it again. Again.
Yeah, you gotta carry it. We've got to go outside
through security. OK, let's go. CHRIS MOORE: All right. Am I in trouble? CHRIS MOORE: No,
no, no, no, no, no. I'm scared! No, no, no, no,
no, don't be scared. What you got in here? How many tubs of
butter you got in here? This weighs about 100 pounds. No butter in there? Uh-uh. NARRATOR: Back at
BWI, Chris escorts Theresa to lost and found. - Oh, I'm scared.
- Don't be scared. - I'm scared.
- Don't be scared. OK. Nothing to be scared of. OK, my son. NARRATOR: The office is closed. But that doesn't stop Chris. Hello? Look, all your I Can't Believe
It's Not Butter is in there. - OK.
- How many tubs do you have? How many? We were wondering
how many tubs you have? - How many?
- How many tubs? - Just what--
- How many? PASSENGER: Six. Six. I told you, six to eight.
- Six. OK. Listen, I'm going to help you
get this through security, OK? OK. Didn't I tell you
didn't have to worry? OK.
Thank you. She's going to pray for me. I need all the prayers
that I can get. She's very grateful
and very thankful that I was assisting her. I mean, she was very
distraught and distressed. And I figured I would just
go ahead and give her a hand, make sure she-- you
know, we see it through. - Can't take it, I'm sorry.
- You can't take it. We're going to have
to call a supervisor. I'm going to get the supervisor. NARRATOR: At the departures
gate for Salt Lake City, supervisor Jeff Boyer
has just been confronted with an unusual situation. Well, we don't allow any
oxygen on the aircraft. NARRATOR: Passenger
Kitchell Kim and his wife are traveling with a tour group
to Yellowstone National Park. But doctor's orders
say he can't travel without his oxygen tanks. It says here that you have to
have the oxygen all the time. But our policy is
we can't let oxygen on board, either in
luggage or in the aircraft. They said it's OK. So doctor recommended. They should know our
policies because oxygen is not allowed on the aircraft at all.
WOMAN: Why? Because it's dangerous. It could explode. Well, we've got about
two more minutes, so they've got to
make a decision here in the next couple of minutes. NARRATOR: Kitchell
faces a real dilemma-- dump the oxygen
and take the risk or miss out on his
dream vacation. At the gate, passenger Kitchell
Kim's problems continue. His vacation with
wife and friends is jeopardized because he can't
travel with his oxygen tanks. JEFF BOYER: Can you go to
Salt Lake without any oxygen? Yeah. Now it's OK. WOMAN: You feel OK? Yeah, I feel OK. WOMAN: Good. But I don't know
when start dizzy. Do you want to go? Where to? Also to there? NARRATOR: The Kims
decide to take the risk and leave the oxygen with Jeff. Kitchell has a 1-hour-40-minute
flight ahead of him. OK, guys. NARRATOR: So much
for doctor's orders. There's been an
unexpected development. The plane for Salt Lake City
has reappeared at the gate. Oh, you got it? OK. I'm going to go get
your oxygen. OK. Just wait right here.
I'll get your-- KITCHELL KIM: Wait here? Yeah, I'll get your
oxygen. Apparently, it was getting
ready to take off, and he complained to
the flight attendant that he was already
getting dizzy and stuff. So the flight attendants
decided that they didn't want to take the risk. So they came back to the
gate and said that he'd have to travel another airline. A little bit start dizzy. We think it's the travel. JEFF BOYER: I'm very sorry, sir. Thank you very much. OK. NARRATOR: There's just
one mystery remaining. WOMAN: Where is your wife? My wife get off with me. So I say, you go to
Yellowstone, go to-- continue. I get off alone myself. It's OK. NARRATOR: While his wife
flies off to Yellowstone, Kitchell heads home. At BWI, Emanuel is
called to the jetway to sniff out a possible problem. It's like, a backpack--
big old backpack. When we loaded it the bins
started smelling like gasoline. Oh, boy. Hi, if I could have
your attention on board. I'm paging Southwest
Airlines passenger-- NARRATOR: Phoenix passenger
Eddie Stanfield is on his way to a camping trip. It's-- actually, it's
this gentleman's bag. He did-- it's a camping bag. He had a stove. Yeah. I thought the policy was that
it couldn't have any gas in it. So I took all the gas out. If it's been used at all, and
all camping equipment's been tested, it can't it-- can't go. Is there anybody you can
call that can come and get it? Because we can't keep it. I'm holding up the plane. It's going to be
a goofy question. But if I just gave it
to one of you guys, could I just call you guys and
pick it up when I got back? Not an option. No? Because if I take
a hold of it now, you're not going
to see it again. Right. Let me dial-- let me dial
one number real quick, if you guys don't mind. AIRLINE WORKER: All right. Is he going, or
is he gonna stay? Well, we're going to-- I'm going to try and
get him-- since this is the last flight to Phoenix-- AIRLINE WORKER: You're gonna
try and get him back on? I'm gonna try and
get him back on. OK. NARRATOR: With a planeload of
passengers waiting for Eddie, can he find a friend
to save his stove? Down on the jetway, it
looks like passenger Eddie Stanfield may have to go
hungry on this camping trip. It was supposed to leave,
like, 10 minutes ago. Well, I got to get on. The stove cost less
than plane ticket. So you are aware that by
the time you get to Phoenix, your bag is not going to
have that item in there. Right? But my bag will
be there, right? The bag will be there. But the item's not
going to be in there. EDDIE STANFIELD: OK.
- OK? All right.
- Well, thanks. Sorry--
- Thank you. --about that. Want to go through
it, and check it out? Yeah. You can smell
how strong it is. As soon as we loaded
it, the whole bin just filled up with fumes. I mean, it was a matter of
30 seconds, and it was-- I knew exactly what it was. This cannot fly at all. As you can see, you
know, there's like, remnants of gasoline. It seems to have leaked
in the passenger's bag. NARRATOR: And it's not
just the stove that won't be allowed on the plane. No, we're not
gonna take that bag. Bag is not gonna go. We can see if he can contact
somebody to come pick up the bag for him because
none of the items in there can fly either,
because now they've all been contaminated with gas. We can't let it travel. NARRATOR: Emanuel
now has to let Eddie know his bag's going nowhere. NARRATOR: In
Chicago, Patty Miller has some rather unusual cargo. Raw chicken. Look at that. AGENT: You can't
take them like this. Oh, my god! AGENT: This would leak all
over the baggaging area. We can't take it. Can we put tape? We can't take it. Well, I used to
it many years ago. I know, but
things have changed. Yes, Since President Bush. [laughter] I want my chickens to go home! I want to eat-- I want to eat fresh chicken! They're fresh chickens. They're not frozen solid. If we ship meat, it's
got to be frozen solid. And then they're in a cooler
that'll leak with ice in it. It wouldn't make it there. NARRATOR: Back in Chicago,
Patty explains why she won't eat frozen chickens. I can't eat them because
they-- they put them in Clorox. And they stay about
two, three weeks. By the time they sell
them, they're sick. They're sick. I advise everybody not eat them. NARRATOR: But she's
only allowed to take frozen chickens in dry ice. Unfortunately, I would have-- everybody whose luggage
was under there with that, it would be completely
destroyed when they got to their destination. NARRATOR: Guess the chickens
won't be flying anywhere today. But Patty's still baffled. Before they tell me now
dry ice, many years ago. Now I put soft ice, and they
don't accept the soft ice. [laughs] AIRLINE WORKER: Could I
see your boarding pass? Oh, yeah. I feel horrible.
