One of the cops removed the magazine from his pistol and pointed to a cartridge (Turkish cops carry ball ammo in their guns, by the way) and then pointed to my bag. The other cop pulled up Google translate on his phone and typed a single word. It was “bullet.” Apparently they had seen a bullet in my checked bag on the X-ray image.
Shit. That wasn’t good.
How I Almost Got Arrested in Turkey | Active Response Training
You are never paranoid enough, especially outside the U.S.
Especially if you make the mistake of traveling to totalitarian countries, where mistakes can be used against you as an excuse to toss you in jail and make you a hostage. Consider Russia (the Greiner case). Of course, in those countries that might happen even if you do nothing wrong, either because evidence is planted on you, or if you’re simply tossed in jail without the bother of a justification at all.
I stopped repurposing my range bag as a carry on after reading several of the “oops” stories.
It has been known to happen here, as well. I was sent from Bahrain to Norfolk (home), and less than a week later to San Francisco. At the completion of the job in San Fran, we went to Busan. I was “caught” in San Francisco during the inspection process prior to boarding on my way to Korea with a folding razor knife in my computer bag. I really don’t know when it got there, but it was between the layers of the bag, and had probably been there berore I went to Bahrain. I was admonished about the severity of carrying weapons in my baggage, and my knife was confiscated. At least they let me continue my trip. . .