7 January 2010 / AP, CALIFORNIA
Seemingly suspicious pieces of luggage delayed flights at two airports on Tuesday, prompting evacuations in Minneapolis and closing a California airport where authorities discovered soft drink bottles filled with what later appeared to be honey.
A passenger’s suitcase tested positive for TNT at Bakersfield’s Meadows Field during a routine swabbing of the bag’s exterior, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. When Transportation Security Administration officials opened the bag, they found bottles filled with an amber liquid, he said. The bag’s owner, Francisco Ramirez, told TSA officers that the bottles were filled with honey, Youngblood said. Officials were testing the liquid to determine exactly what it is. “Why in this day and age would someone take a chance carrying honey in Gatorade bottles?” Youngblood said. “That itself is an alarm. It’s hard to understand.”
