Raw chicken and guns: What the TSA found in luggage in 2022

Last year, someone hid drugs inside a hair scrunchie and tried to get it past airport luggage scanners in Boise, Idaho.

Workers at the Transportation Security Administration spotted the contraband, which now ranks No. 6 on the agency’s list of Top 10 strangest items found at airport security checkpoints in 2022. Other strange finds from last year include “soiled money” stuffed into a pair of crutches confiscated at El Paso International Airport; an inert grenade found at Milwaukee’s Mitchell International airport; and electric cattle prods tucked into a carry-on guitar case, spotted at Dulles International Airport in Virginia. 

The cattle prods were found in September and security workers allowed the passenger to whom they belonged to repack the devices into a checked bag. 

“TSA would have had no issue had the items been packed in a checked bag, but passengers certainly cannot carry an electric cattle prod into the cabin of an aircraft,” the agency said in a statement Friday. 

Topping the TSA’s 2022 list: a drug smuggler tried to move thousands of Fentanyl pills disguised as candy through Los Angeles International Airport in October. The drug trafficker hid the pills inside packaging for Sweetarts, Skittles and Whoppers, authorities said at the time. 

Here’s the full list of the TSA’s Top 10 most security finds in 2022.

• Fentanyl pills in candy wrappers — Los Angeles International Airport (California)
• Gun inside raw chicken — Fort Lauderdale International Airport (Florida)
• Disassembled gun inside jars of peanut butter — John F. Kennedy International Airport (New York)
• Gun inside an arm sling — Greater Rochester International Airport (New York)
• Knife found inside a laptop — Richmond International Airport (Virginia)
• Drugs inside hair scrunchies — Boise Airport (Idaho)
• Gun inside PlayStation video game console — Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (Georgia)
• Cattle prods in guitar case — Dulles International Airport (Virginia)
• Inert grenade — Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport (Wisconsin)
• Soiled money in crutches — El Paso International Airport (Texas)

TSA officials reported earlier this year that they confiscated a record 6,301 firearms — more than 88% of which were loaded — from passengers in 2022. Richmond airport in Virginia stopped a record 23 loaded guns last year, the agency said. 

Some of the oddities TSA workers found in 2021 included a chainsaw at New Orleans International Airport, a machete found at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., and a meth-laced breakfast burrito intercepted at Hobby International Airport in Houston, Texas.