Post by Taxigirl on Oct 27, 2003 9:59:54 GMT
A novelty toy dog which breaks wind sparked a major security alert at an American airport.
Page designer Dave Rogerson's life-size mechanical terrier set off a security detector at Norfolk Airport in Virginia.
Armed security staff were alerted when the toy's wind-breaking mechanism registered as a high explosive on sensitive monitoring equipment.
Mr Rogerson, 31, from Thorner, Leeds, was questioned by FBI agents and looked on in amazement as they took a series of swabs from the mechanical toy's rear end.
The toy animal was eventually returned to him, but he was not allowed to take his planned flight and had to take an alternative route to North Carolina.
Mr Rogerson said: "There's no humour at American check-ins and for about 20 minutes I was quite scared.
"They told me it is the highest reading they had for explosives and they took it very seriously.
"They were very jumpy and convinced there was something explosive in the dog."
Eventually the FBI experts decided the toy was harmless and returned it to him.
He has now named the toy dog Norfolk after the airport.