Stop and search: The TSA has taken to Instagram to publish some of their more unsual and entertaining finds at US airports.
Over 700 million passengers fly through American airports every year, it's the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) job to search passengers' luggage for contraband.
As you can imagine, over the course of a year the TSA discovers a treasure trove of oddities passing though US airports.
In an effort to educate – and entertain – the TSA have begun an Instagram account to show off some of their more unusual findings.
Screening for banned items such as weapons, illegal drugs or even live animals, staff take their job seriously. However, in the face of the bizarre and improbable items passing through airport x-ray machines, you can detect a hint of humour around their discoveries.
On Instagram, they have published everything from a cartoonish toy bomb through to a Freddy Kruger-inspired bladed gauntlet.
These items are no laughing matter. They've caused hours of delay to air passengers and planes across the states.
However innocuous an item might seem, anything resembling a bomb must be checked by "TSA explosives specialist or a police department bomb squad".
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It's not just the potential instruments of destruction that are on the TSA's radar. Last year officers confiscated all manner of wildlife and animals which travellers attempt to bring though security undeclared.
While American airlines cracked down on unusual 'comfort animals' in cabins last year, the means by these which passengers attempted to smuggle pets and livestock onboard are equally outrageous.
One passenger travelling through Miami International was discovered with a live snake tied inside a nylon stocking and hidden in a computer hard drive.
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At Erie International Airport in Pennsylvania, TSA agents discovered a live kitten packed into clothes in a passenger's carry on luggage. Far from "comfort animals", the treatment of these animals is downright cruel.
After discovery by the TSA it is up to the US Fish & Wildlife Service or local animal protection groups such as the US Humane Society to rescue wild animals.
Sometimes the TSA helps expose more than individual items of contraband but whole illicit enterprises.
Last year more than 100 finches were smuggled from Guyana through New York airports to be sold into underground gambling rings.
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