Photo Credit: TSA

With the help of a Rhode Island man, John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) made it into the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) annual Top 10 List of most unusual items found at security checkpoints nationwide in 2022.

TSA released the list in an on-line video it posted on the agency’s YouTube account.

The item from the airport that ranked as #3 on the Top 10 List?Read on . . .

TSA officers at JFK Airport on December 22 stopped a Rhode Island passenger who was traveling with two jars of peanut butter in a checked bag when the bag triggered an alarm. Upon closer inspection, the TSA officers removed parts of a disassembled .22 caliber handgun that had been artfully concealed in what was packaged to look like two unopened jars of peanut butter. Each of the firearm parts had been wrapped in plastic and stuffed into the center of the jars. The gun’s magazine was loaded with bullets.

When the checked bag triggered an alarm in a Terminal 8 X-ray unit, a TSA officer opened the bag and upon closer inspection uncovered the concealed firearm parts. TSA officials notified the Port Authority Police, who came to the checked baggage room, confiscated the items, tracked down the traveler in the terminal, and arrested him. 

For more information on what you can and cannot bring on an airplane, visit www.tsa.gov.

Ryan Belmore is the owner and publisher of What's Up Newp. He took over the publication in 2012 and has grown it into a three-time Rhode Island Monthly Best Local News Blog (2018, 2019, 2020). He was named LION Publishers Member of the Year in 2020 and received the Dominique Award from the Arts & Cultural Society of Newport County the same year. He has been awarded grants for investigative and community journalism, and continues to coach and mentor new local news publications nationwide. Ryan...

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