Shreveport family man and fellow Church brother, Zach Wilson fought for his life in 2017 following our annual missions trip to Guatemala. Upon his attempt to return back to his family in the United States, he was detained and subsequently charged by foreign police. Airport security found both .22.and.30 cartridges Wilson unknowingly possessed from his previous hunting trip with his father in Kentucky. The ammo in his luggage made its way through Houston’s airport screening and all throughout the missions trip. As a result, he spent the next six (6) months in Guatemala custody undergoing numerous court appearances for his future to be determined.
Below are the links to actual reports if you are interested:
Had it been a real threat it would have been too late. Rest assured he is at home with his family and seen him at church not too long ago. I should have posted his return article too but was focusing on a mistake all of us could encounter if you’re like me and use the same bag for travel and range purposes (Not that I would EVER go to another country). I’ll remain a local evangelist
Glad to hear he is home, he was there to help those people not cause trouble. I used to travel for work, I was on the road every week. I had a rollercase just for biz trips to prevent anything going through airport security unknown to me. It is just to easy to forget something and have a bad day with the TSA.
I’m so glad that our community & church did so much to ensure a “speedy” (I say fast but he could have lost his life there) his return. The issue in that country is like most, its illegal to even posses firearms or ammo, much more to hop on a plane with it.
Glad to hear he’s back OK. A friend of mine goes to Guatemala (related to her church) and teaches violin.
Back in the day when I flew to many different countries annually, I always thought that the security to leave many of those countries was usually more stringent than to enter. It’s also my understanding that such “forgotten” firearms/ammo discovered by border/airport security is a common occurrence.
My most interesting security check (I won’t list the country; they’ve changed since that country started becoming a larger tourist destination) was when I flew in, they brought each of the passengers to a security table, you could watch the clothes flying in the air at every station from the security staff vigorously checking everyone’s luggage.
Some other interesting airport security stories for me…
While flying to and from Vegas, I’ve had my shoes swabbed and tested “randomly,” and another time my friend was allowed on with something that looked like a small baseball bat (mexican art; carved stick) and they stopped me because they said my semi-soft leather pool cue case might be used as a weapon. For the record, I put the actual pool stick in my check-in luggage before entering security, but the semi-soft leather case was too large to fit in it.
About 20 years ago, I had a stopover in Chicago and left the gate area to say hello to my family that came to see me on my way back to college. The airport put these metal brackets on the X-ray machines so that only the smallest portion of the carry-ons could squeeze through. My carry-on was about half the size (by volume) of what was allowed, but since it was an abnormal shape (locker style bag) they wouldn’t let me take it back to the gate and I had to mail it to myself.
On one of my last international flights, I was waiting to board the plane and saw three younger American fellows (probably just graduated undergrad) speaking to the gate attendant. They had purchased a $500 bottle of Scotch in the duty free shop before waiting at the gate. The attendant said that they didn’t allow people to bring alcohol on board. Since there was no time for them to return the bottle (I can’t even remember if the shops were still open at that time), the three younger fellows left it on a seat at the gate for whoever wanted it.
I’ve always heard the worst stories related to airport screening as well as TSA in general. Although, I would not know because boarding a plane is on my bucket-list lol Other than the fear of my right to privacy being stripped away the though of the flight in itself is enough to keep me on the ground in all my travels. I’m not big on roller-coasters therefore would probably have a panic attack on a plane lol
