We’ve all heard the Cheetos slogan, “dangerously cheesy,” but it seems that in recent news that became a reality after TSA flagged a woman for having multiple bags of the snack in her bag.
Emily Mei, a social media star, says a Transport Security Administration agent stopped her on her way through airport security for trying to transport multiple bags of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Emily Mei is better known on Twitter as Emily Ghoul. On October 4th, she tweeted a video of the incident – which has since gained over 1.6 million views.
“Will never forget the day TSA stopped me cuz they thought i was hiding s - - t inside my bag cuz all i had was like 20 bags of Hot Cheetos,” she wrote.
The clip shows a TSA agent removing bags of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos from the inside of a Louis Vuitton Keepall duffel bag before performing swab tests in order to check for chemicals that could be used in explosives.
Mei stated in a follow-up tweet that the reason she packed so many bags is because of their scarcity in Korea.
“For everyone who’s asking why i had so many bags of Hot Cheetos, apparently it’s hard to get in korea so my friends always ask me to bring it for them LOL,” she wrote.
As an American expat in Ireland, I can completely sympathize with someone needing to pack plenty of tasty American snacks – I’m still waiting on my parents’ care package of Pop-Tarts, Kraft mac and cheese, and Funyuns. And it seems that many others could also sympathize with the viral video, with many people posting such comments like “They hate to see you win” and “This is the hero we’ve been waiting for.” There were even some commiserating with recounted tales of their own sad TSA snack-jacking incidents.
“Reminds me of exactly a year ago when TSA had to search through one by one every single one of my airheads,” one person responded to the video.
“I feel you,” wrote another, while showing off a picture that featured a full suitcase of Cheez-It boxes.
While food is permitted, TSA guidelines state that food items can be flagged if they “clutter bags or obstruct clear images on the X-ray machine.”
This past spring, the TSA unveiled a list of the oddest items it has confiscated, some of the bizarre items in question include a Freddy Krueger-style glove with razors for claws and a guitar-shaped like an automatic rifle.
Will never forget the day TSA stopped me cuz they thought i was hiding shit inside my bag cuz all i had was like 20 bags of Hot Cheetos 😩 pic.twitter.com/cZ55xgEneG
— Emily Ghoul (Emily Mei) (@emilyghoul1) October 5, 2019