Transportation Security Administration agents at New York’s La Guardia Airport reportedly found two possible pipe bombs in a passenger’s luggage and left the materials in a public area for six hours before alerting police.
The New York Post reported that on Monday, the agents apparently left the pipes on a radiator as fliers passed through the airport.
The pipes turned out to be harmless. The passenger carrying them was allowed to board after explaining to the agents’ supervisor that the pipes were for homeopathic medicine, the paper reported.
Six hours later, the supervisor, who allowed the man to board his flight without taking his name, eventually noticed the pipes still lying near the screening area and alerted a TSA bomb specialist, who took another two hours to arrive, the report said.
A TSA spokesman told The Post that the items were “voluntarily surrendered” and it notified police only “out of an abundance of caution.”