Newark Airport makes TSA’s Top 10 list of most unusual finds at checkpoints in 2024

Parts of a disassembled 9mm handgun were scattered among plastic pieces inside a Black Panther LEGO box like this one. (Note: This is not the actual box that the gun parts were hidden in.)

NEWARK, N.J. - Newark Liberty International Airport made it into the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) Top 10 List of most unusual items detected at airport security checkpoints in 2024. TSA released the list in a 3-minute on-line video it posted on the agency's Twitter account.

What was the item from the airport that ranked as #8 on the Top 10 list? Read on . . .

This disassembled firearm was detected in a traveler's duffle bag by TSA officers at Newark Liberty International Airport on Oct. 16, 2024. The parts were concealed in a boot and in a LEGO box. (TSA photo)

A Mississippi man was arrested by police on Oct. 16, 2024, after TSA officers at Newark Liberty International Airport intercepted disassembled gun parts artfully concealed in a boot and a LEGO box.

The TSA officer detected the fully disassembled 9mm firearm in a carry-on bag at a checkpoint in Terminal A as the man's duffle bag entered the checkpoint X-ray machine. The gun frame was jammed in the bottom of a boot below a sock that had been stuffed behind it to help conceal it. The gun's slide, spring and gun magazine loaded with 12 bullets were detected mixed among the plastic pieces of a Black Panther LEGO set.

Port Authority Police were alerted, confiscated the items, and arrested the man, who was ticketed to fly to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

"This is an example of someone who was intentionally attempting to carry a gun onto a flight," said Thomas Carter, TSA's Federal Security Director for New Jersey. "He kept changing his story, first telling us that it was a toy gun and then claiming that it belonged to his brother. Regardless of his claims, what I can tell you is that it was a fully disassembled firearm that he could easily have assembled and used on a plane."

For more information on what you can and cannot bring through a TSA security checkpoint, visit www.tsa.gov.