The other day I took a shuttle from DC to NYC.

I stood in line and took off my jacket, shoes, belt and watch.

I took out my laptop and put it on the conveyor belt and also my briefcase.

I walked through the new body scan device and was asked, “Do you have any metal or coins in your pocket?” To which I replied truthfully, “No.”

I walked through and was scanned and then a TSA employee said, “There is something in his pockets.”

Another TSA employee then said, “Sir, what is in your pockets?”

I felt in my pants pocket. There was a Benadryl tablet; 2 Tylenol capsules; and a Singulair tablet. All of my allergy medicines for later that night.

I took them out and showed them to the TSA employee.

He then said, “OK this way sir. I must do a pat down.”

And then it commenced.

In front of everyone who walked by, some who laughed and gawked or felt some level of empathy. One passerby said – and I quote – “Hey Ted! He must be a Flyers fan!”

I was scanned first by a wand. That was ok.

The employee – who had gloves on – then reached into my pockets. He fished around to see if I had anything else hidden in my pockets. This was a bit creepy.

He then started to feel inside the band of my belt loops on my pants.

And then he patted me all around my thighs. And he really was patting me down, kind of like a massage!

This wasn’t enough so he asked me to spread my legs further apart. He then patted me up and down my inner thigh and redid the outer thigh. This lasted perhaps 20 seconds. He dropped down a bit to go from thigh down to my knee area.

Satisfied that I had no other over the counter secret weapons taped to my legs, he looked at me and said, “Are these your bags?” I said, “Yes sir.”

He then walked to my bags and fished through my briefcase. He did all the things by the book. The entire process took less than 3 minutes although I am now scarred for life! I did have an asthma inhaler in my briefcase. As he reached for that, I was panicking but he didn’t say anything about it. He did stare at it a bit as if it was an alien communications device.

This entire ordeal was activated because I had some medicine tablets in my pocket. Not metal or fluid.

Perhaps the TSA thought I could place the Benadryl tablet into the pilots’ mouth to make him drowsy as you shouldn’t take Benadryl and drive or operate heavy machinery as noted on the packaging. They did NOT take away my medicines for which I was grateful.
I appreciate the levels of security needed in today’s world.

I have no beef. I am not complaining. Only reporting.

But have we reached a point of no return now? Tylenol and Benadryl and Singulair as activators for a public pat down? With latex gloves? Do we feel safer now as a public that flies?

Thank you Richard Reid.