"Pistol pendant causes airport holdup"

That's how the brilliant title read in the Toronto Star after a woman was forced to remove her pendant shaped like a Colt .45 handgun at the security checkpoint in the Kelowna, B.C. airport. The Canadian Air Transport Authority (CATSA) officials felt the pendant posed a security risk to the other passengers on her WestJet flight. Marnina Norys, the 39-year-old PhD student owner of the pendant explained to the Star that the 5-centimetre pendant, with no bullets or moving parts was not actually a miniature handgun. That story obviously didn't fly with CATSA (pun intended). After the tiny pistol was thoroughly inspected by security screeners, Norys was forced to place the pendant in her checked baggage, or miss her flight. Since the incident, Norys has received a letter of apology from Dave Smith, director of screening operations with CATSA, that stated, "In retrospect, your revolver-shaped pendant is not a threat and should have been allowed on board the aircraft." Now, about that bump under your eye...

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