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One of these Sharpies is actually a ‘razor sharp’ weapon, TSA found. Can you find it?

Two Sharpies were in the bag — but one didn’t look quite right, the agent said.
Two Sharpies were in the bag — but one didn’t look quite right, the agent said. Transportation Security Administration

With only a short glance, the two Sharpies that passed through security at Huntsville International Airport seemed normal — until two TSA agents looked twice.

Officer Germaine Galarza pulled out a passenger’s bag from the X-ray and found two Sharpies inside. One of them was a “razor sharp” weapon, according to a March 15 TSA news release.

The yellow Sharpie was fiberglass sharpened to a tip and stained yellow to look like a marker, a photo from the TSA showed. Officers are trained to check markers as weapons, according to the news release.

“I remembered an email we were sent that had a report about markers/Sharpies so I took another look, and upon further inspection one turned out to be altered,” Galarza said in the release. “It contained a full-length spike of fiberglass with a sharp tip. I called for a supervisor who responded immediately.”

The passenger told officials he had gotten the marker at a trade show and voluntarily gave it up, according to the release.

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This story was originally published March 16, 2023 at 2:22 PM with the headline "One of these Sharpies is actually a ‘razor sharp’ weapon, TSA found. Can you find it?."

Alison Cutler
mcclatchy-newsroom
Alison Cutler is a National Real Time Reporter for the Southeast at McClatchy. She graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and previously worked for The News Leader in Staunton, VA, a branch of USAToday.
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