Blades Hidden in Walking Sticks Stun Owners
By MATT PHILLIPS
Saeed Sanjideh decided to take the cane with the lion's head on top.
The retired deli owner was traveling from San Jose, Calif., to visit his nephew in the Seattle area and figured the embellished walking stick befitted a special occasion.
"This one was fancy," said Mr. Sanjideh, 78 years old.
But as Transportation Security Administration officers examined the cane, they discovered it had a special feature hidden within: a 16-inch sword.
"It was so interesting," Mr. Sanjideh said of the cane, which his wife bought for him at a flea market. "I didn't know it had a sword in it."
Airport police were cautious. They questioned him until they finally decided that he didn't pose a security threat. He was eventually allowed to board his flight, though his walking stick -- along with its mysterious contents -- was confiscated.
The Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit has already resulted in beefed up safety measures -- and prompted debate about the use of body scanners and other sophisticated weapons-detectors. Sunday, protesters from the Pirate Party of Germany went so far as to walk through Berlin's Tegel Airport in their underwear to protest all-seeing body scanners, which Germany plans to test later this year. The hope, of course, is that enhanced screening methods will keep potential terrorists off flights. But what about those folks who unwittingly bear arms?
Since 2002, TSA screeners have found more than 200 canes concealing either swords or knives. Many of these incidents involve elderly travelers who are just as surprised as the security screeners to find sabers hidden inside canes they may have inherited, found at antique shops, or received from charities. In September alone, four such incidents occurred according to documents provided by the TSA.
"The passengers who travel with these unusual items are often surprised to discover that a prohibited item is concealed inside," says Lauren Gaches, a spokeswoman for the TSA. "However, it is important that our officers identify modified canes to ensure they are not carried on board an aircraft."
On Sept. 15, an X-ray machine operator at San Diego International Airport discerned the outline of a 2 1/2-inch knife concealed in a cane. "The passenger stated that he bought the cane online and had no idea the knife was inside. The knife was removed from the cane and passenger was allowed to keep the cane," a TSA report said. That same day, when another woman's walking stick was found to contain a 13-inch sword at Philadelphia International, she explained that "her doctor recommended she use one and she just borrowed the prettiest one she found from a friend."
Recently, TSA officials at San Antonio International Airport informed a woman that her cane contained a double-sided metal blade more than 2 feet long. "She stated that she didn't realize that her walking cane contained a sword and that she has had it for 30 years," an incident report said.
Toting weaponry to the airport, accidentally or not, is a recipe for trouble. Yet it happens with surprising regularity. Some 12 firearms were found at TSA checkpoints during the week of Dec. 27 to Jan. 3, according to the latest weekly statistics published on the agency's Web site. The TSA also discovered four prohibited items that were "artfully concealed." The agency uses that term of art to describe prohibited, and potentially dangerous, things that are camouflaged.
During the Middle Ages, members of the nobility carried walking sticks with blades on pilgrimages. And at the peak of cane popularity, in the 19th century, men would have an array of canes including so-called defense canes. Romantic poet Lord Byron wrote about carrying one in an 1816 diary entry describing a mountain hike. "Guide wanted to carry my cane; I was going to give it to him when I recollected that it was a swordstick and I thought the lightning might be attracted toward him; kept it myself."
Over time, canes grew more complex, featuring spring-mounted stilettos and handles that squirted "vitriol," or acid, in the eyes of would-be assailants. France was a leader in the production of such items, featured in catalogs with names such as "La Terrible" and "La Diabolique." Despite such monikers, sword canes probably didn't see much violent action in those days either, says Henry Taron, an antique-cane dealer in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.
"The sword cane was more to be brandished," says Mr. Taron. "I doubt there was much running-through with sword canes."
In December 2008, Connie Escareno, an 85-year-old former state worker, found herself sitting in a wheelchair facing several police officers at western New York's Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Her cane was on a nearby desk. One of the officers picked up the walking stick, which Ms. Escareno said she had found a few years back at a Catholic charity in Camarillo, Calif., where she lived. The police officer removed some tape, twisted the handle, and gave the cane a shake. From its base, an 18-inch blade emerged. "I thought, 'What the heck is going on,'" Ms. Escareno recalled. "I had no idea."
After a brief conversation with police officers from Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, which runs the airport, Ms. Escareno -- who passed away in March -- convinced the officers that she was unaware of any blade inside. In any case, "It was very dull," said C. Douglas Hartmayer, director of public relations for the NFTA. "It wasn't like a sharpened Marine saber or anything."
Some who've inadvertently spirited complex canes into airports wonder whether they might able to recover the contraband. "It was beautiful," said Lori Massaro, describing a walking stick with a gold handle that she'd brought for her mother to carry on a trip from Fort Myers, Fla., to New York. Ms. Massaro, who was traveling with her mother in December 2008, had placed the cane on the X-ray belt. The pair were questioned closely by a female security officer. "She said to me, 'I don't want to hear any stories, people get locked up for this, this is not a laughing matter.' " The two were permitted to board their flight -- sans cane.
Ms. Gaches, the TSA spokeswoman, had no direct knowledge of the exchange. The agency, she says, has a "highly trained work force whose mission is to ensure the safety of the traveling public."
Of course, getting to the gate can be problematic for unsteady seniors without their canes. A wheelchair was produced for Mr. Sanjideh, of San Jose, after his sword cane was confiscated. And once he reached Seattle, his nephew's wife bought him a new -- if less sharp-looking -- walking stick. Upon receiving it, he took a peek to see if it contained any secret compartments. "But there was nothing to open," he said.
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