Inspired by the other security post here some days ago, here's mine:
It was pre-9/11 (actually it was the summer 2001) and I was visiting family in Texas (all the way from Europe). One of those family members had a ranch, full of loaded guns, and once a month shooed the cattle away from a large area and held an NRA meeting. Guns, beer, & barbecue - absolutely awesome for a teenage boy like me. I watched all the stereotypes from american movies coming to life (not to mention firing a lot of guns and eating a lot of meat). Wow that was cool!
Anywho... most of those guys made their own ammo and one of them fired a .45 calibre buffalo rifle. He poured out the gunpowder, gave me a cartidge and it was the most awesome souvenir I had ever had.
Fast forward, we're travelling back home, first from Dallas to New York, then from there to Netherlands before boarding on a flight to Norway. Everything went smoothly until we reached security at the dutch airport. My bag went back and forth in the scanner, and they started calling for other people. Shit, I put the ammo in my hand luggage!
Today, I guess I would have been shot or something. Back then... well, they apparently saw that I was with my parents and that they looked pretty harmless. Plus I was a teenage boy and they tend to be forgetful. So after debating with his colleagues and looking at this huge piece of ammo the main security guy asked me:
You promise you do nothing bad?
Yes.
And they put it back in my bag and I boarded the plane.
I don't know what's the biggest WTF.. that I was allowed to carry ammo on board a plane, or that I brought it with me through two different airports in US without anyone noticing.