That’s one way to send a baggage screening operation slithering off course.
TSA officers at a California airport received an unexpected surprise during a routine luggage inspection when they discovered two live snakes hidden inside a passenger’s pillowcase—one of them a rattlesnake.
The unusual incident occurred at Ontario International Airport, where TSA Officer Benjamin Andrade-Carillo initially believed he was handling a bundle of rope.
Then it moved.
“When I realized the item in my hand was alive, I told myself, ‘I need to escalate this immediately,’” Andrade-Carillo recalled.
He alerted Supervisory TSA Officer Suggey Flores, who came over to examine the bag.
“I felt it tense up and start moving,” Flores said. “I have held snakes before, so I wasn’t too spooked. I was more impressed, because it’s not something you see every day.”
ONT TSA Manager Francisco “Frank” Calderon later confirmed that the bag contained two live snakes, including a rattlesnake.
Airport police and the passenger’s airline were notified. Screening was temporarily halted in the immediate area as officers evaluated the potential threat.
“Safety was a concern because we didn’t know what kind of snakes they were,” Flores said. “They could have been venomous.”
Police took the bag to the airline’s ticketing area, where the passenger removed the reptiles and gave them to a family member who was not traveling.
According to the Los Angeles TSA Coordination Center, the passenger said the snakes were pets and that he had previously flown with them on another airline.
After the snakes were removed, TSA rescreened the luggage and cleared it for travel. The passenger was permitted to continue his trip without the reptiles.
No one was injured or bitten, and airport-wide screening operations continued without disruption.
“In my two years of service, I had not found anything like this,” Andrade-Carillo said. “In San Diego, I experienced a gentleman trying to bring live lobsters as a carry-on.”
TSA advises travelers to contact their airlines before arriving at the airport to learn the rules for flying with pets, including reptiles.
“We ask the traveling public to be mindful of what they bring in their bags,” Andrade-Carillo said, “because if we don’t know what it is, we will find out.”