A Transportation Security Administration officer views a full-body scan during a December 2009 demonstration in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
NEW YORK - An 84-year-old Long Island grandmother says she was injured and humiliated during a strip search at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Lenore Zimmerman of Long Beach, L.I., said she was on her way to a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., when she was whisked into a private room by security who removed her clothes.
Zimmerman, who is 4'11", told the New York Daily News she is hunched over, walks with a walker, weighs 110 pounds and is going to be 85 years old in July. "Do I look like a terrorist?" she asked.
Zimmerman says she was searched after she asked to forgo advanced image technology screening equipment because she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator.
The retired receptionist said she normally gets patted down at airline security. But this time, Zimmerman said, two female agents escorted her to a private area.
At one point a metal bar of her walker banged against her leg and blood trickled from a gash. "My sock was soaked with blood," Zimmerman said. "I was bleeding like a pig."
But, she said, the TSA agents showed no sympathy. Zimmerman said she got no response when she asked them, "Why are you doing this?"
Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein told the Daily News that a review of closed-circuit television footage from the airport shows proper procedures were followed.
CBS NEWS
OMG! Some people here were definately on their own little "power trip",it seems...and is it against their policy to respond to the query from the little old lady? And were they just bored when they decided to strip search her? I can't see why a tiny elderly lady, using a walker, would arouse any alarms to cause this, and I'm sure the poor lady was mortified! Makes me wonder how some of these TSA agents get hired in the first place...perhaps one of the hiring requirements is "You must be willing to be a bully, especially if the passenger appears to be completely innocent (sure sign of a terrorist action)...be especially vigilant of "handicapped elderly people and babies, who could be carrying plastic explosive devices on their bodies, or in their diapers! Give me a break!
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