17 TSA agents and passengers share the weirdest item that's gone through security.

Everyone dreads the painfully inefficient process or airport security whether it's taking your shoes off, wondering if your suitcase has to go in a separate bin, or watching someone in front of you move at an impressively slow pace...

Employees get the pleasure of enduring a completely different set of torturous tasks and bizarre experiences, though. So, when a Reddit user asked, 'Airport security personnel, what is the weirdest thing you have seen inside the passengers' luggage?' TSA agents and airport employees everywhere were ready to spill their secrets.

1.

Lawnmower engines or scooter engines in their carry-on baggage. - drbluetongue

2.

My child once packed a ziplock full of sand in her suitcase. Turns out on X-ray this looks like a bomb. Also turns out her sand was full of rotten seaweed and tiny little (dead) sea creatures. Opening that bag was like the bog of eternal stench. Three airports we hauled that damn bag through, and then I made her throw it away. - PotsPansAmsterdam

3.

It was me. I found a taxidermy chicken on a trip, and had to buy it. Then I had to get her home. Well, she wouldn't fit in my suitcase, so I had to carry her in my arms. It was a really busy travel day, and that chicken amused EVERYONE.

Absolutely every person in line suddenly wasn't grumpy anymore. TSA all laughed, especially when she had to go through the x-ray; passengers who were irritated at lines started smiling. I loved it. 10/10 would travel with a chicken again. - Encrowpy

4.

I was flying domestic, as a late teen, with my sister and without my parents. My bag of stuff was inspected after the xray, and a bug (earwig?) crawled out from the backpack and then under the desk out of sight. The agent said nothing, and I said nothing. - idejtauren

5.

My brother and his friend “borrowed” a lawn gnome from my mom’s evil roommate. They both heard the TSA guy say, “Is that a gnome?” as it went through the scanner. No one said anything though. - motado

6.

Nine times out of ten it's an electric razor. But ... every once in a while... it's a dildo. Of course, it's company policy never to imply ownership in the event of a dildo. We have to use the indefinite article, 'a dildo', never ... your dildo. - khalamar

7.

I flew with an antique 12 inch cast-iron skillet with a lid and two antique oil lamps with iron brackets a mercury glass reflector in my carry-on. They were family heirlooms that I very carefully and skillfully wrapped in my sweaters and a long velvet skirt and lined everything with socks and bras (yes, my packing skills are to be envied).

I had to explain to the TSA that I was not planning to use the skillet as a weapon and that the reflector was not the casing for a bomb while my bras were laying all over the table. Me yelling 'be careful with that - it's super fragile' probably didn't help with my not-a-bomb plea. - Nutney

8.

There’s a lot of odd stuff found in checked baggage. Commercial fireworks, the mortars that shoot up in the sky and explode. Cops were involved. A skinned goat skull packed on top of clothing. It had obviously missed the plane, sat for a day and that was a very bad day.

Poorly sealed jars of rotting blended fish, must be a delicacy somewhere. Undeclared firearms are fairly common, they don’t necessarily pose a danger but there’s a right and wrong way to transport them. - Corey307

9.

Had a jar of candy from the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter in my bag and a iPhone charger thrown on top, the two together looked like a bomb on the X-ray machine. The guy laughed after opening it, I think he was relieved. - thedemonrko

10.

Did you know that there's a sports drink that comes in a bottle that's shaped exactly like an M2 grenade? I didn't, until I was working an x-ray machine in a military airport and some f*cker decided it would be a good idea to put a bottle in his checked bag. - Commander_Alex_Mason

11.

Can't wait to find the response from the TSA who flagged me, pulled my solid, amethyst dildo out of my carry-on and asked what it was. - ShrodingersLitten

12.

A live spider. Passenger didn't know and wasn't large but he opened his bag, it crawled out, and I screamed. Human ashes. Homemade dildos. The woman gave me her business card. A live cat. Antlers with rotting flesh still on them. My favorite was a magician's bag. Alerted for explosives. He kept pulling bits out of pockets and showing me bits of his act. - Oxo_cube

13.

I once carried a small, stuffed toy llama in my carry on. TSA Agent #1 turned to TSA Agent #2 and said, with delight, “Someone has a sheep in their bag!” - doveinabottle

14.

I worked TSA. Things that stood out to me was a hookah pipe. It looked like an octopus. Then some lady put her dog through the machine. It looked like a turkey. - wintercast

15.

Bought a wiener dog corkscrew for my fiancé at a gift shop the same day as my flight. Threw it in my backpack and totally forgot to put it in my checked luggage. Noticed security grabbing my bag off the belt, they pulled out the corkscrew and I gasped and said “MY WEINER DOG!!!”

I must have looked genuinely concerned about that corkscrew because two TSA guys decided it didn’t seem like much of a threat and let me keep it. Shoutout to those TSA guys for letting me bring my derpy gift home! - vulturelady

16.

I worked at an airport as a line tech. A former baggage screener (pre-TSA) told me of the time he open a bag and found a human skull. The passenger was an MD and had all the appropriate paperwork to transport the skull, but it was still surreal. - Blokie_McBlokeface

17.

Half of the suitcase contained ears of fresh corn and half frozen bratwurst. Family picnic in the south, apparently. - markko79