It was a loaded diaper, but not like you would think.
Security officers found 17 bullets concealed inside a disposable baby diaper Wednesday at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, the Transportation Security Administration said.
Officers pulled the otherwise clean diaper from a passenger’s carry-on bag after it triggered an alarm in an X-ray machine at an airport security checkpoint, the TSA said.
According to the agency, the passenger initially claimed he did not know how the bullet-filled diaper ended up in his bag. Later he suggested his girlfriend put it there, the agency said. TSA identified the passenger as a man from Arkansas who was ticketed for a flight to Chicago’s Midway Airport but did not disclose his name.
Port Authority police cited him for unlawful possession of the 9mm ammunition. Messages seeking details were left with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, and the Queens district attorney’s office.
The diaper disguiser is just the latest LaGuardia passenger to be flagged for packing bullets — and sometimes heat. It is a problem that has cropped up at airports across the US. Last month, TSA officers found a 45-caliber pistol and a magazine loaded with six bullets concealed in a pair of Nike sneakers in a checked bag at LaGuardia.
Firearms are allowed to be transported as checked luggage, but only in a locked, hard-sided container — not shoes.
