Passenger arrested after TSA finds frightening object inside baseball bat-shaped flashlight

A passenger’s attempt to bring an unusual item through airport security in Florida quickly caught the attention of highly trained Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers.At Tampa International Airport recently, TSA officers discovered a 4-inch, double-edged knife concealed inside a baseball bat-shaped flashlight, according to an employee story published on the agency’s website.TSA Officer Andrew Carter was screening the passenger’s carry-on bag with an X-ray machine when he noticed something unusual about the flashlight — and flagged the bag for a closer look.“The makeup and composition of the flashlight appeared unusual and outside what I typically expect, so I determined it required further examination,” Carter said in the published note.Supervisory TSA Officer Michael Slaughter then searched the bag — and felt a mass beneath its lining. After opening the lining, he found the baseball bat-shaped flashlight and noticed a line along its shaft.“That is when it detached from the flashlight — revealing a 4-inch double-edged knife integrated into the handle,” he said.When the passenger was questioned, he initially said he did not know the item was in his bag.But after airport police arrived, he said he’d placed it beneath the suitcase lining to save space, according to TSA.The passenger was arrested and was not allowed to travel, the agency said.Keith Jeffries, the Florida-based vice president of K2 Security Screening Group and a former federal security director for TSA at Los Angeles International Airport, told Fox News Digital that concealed blades are not unheard of at airport checkpoints.“It’s not uncommon to see artfully concealed blades inside of items,” Jeffries said.He pointed to walking canes as one example, noting that passengers are sometimes unaware that a blade is inside an item they purchased.The Tampa case raised a different concern because the passenger reportedly admitted to intentionally concealing the item...