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Sunday Morning Skepticism: What's the Real Story Behind Video of TSA Strip-Searching a Boy?

Sunday Morning Skepticism: What's the Real Story Behind Video of TSA Strip-Searching a Boy?

So many stories and videos are flying about terrible things happening at TSA checkpoints.  Many of them are true.  Some are not.  A lot are exaggerations or examples of things that did not happen recently.  We've posted about that here and here.

So what do make of the newest viral video purporting to show a young boy being stripped searched:

The video was posed on the 19th by lukemtait.  It's the only video on that channel right now.  Other people are now copying the video and reposting it of course.

This is the caption on the video:

Lets get the facts straight first. Before the video started the boy went through a metal detector and didn't set it off but was selected for a pat down. The boy was shy so the TSA couldn't complete the full pat on the young boy. The father tried several times to just hold the boys arms out for the TSA agent but I guess it didn't end up being enough for the guy. I was about 30 ft away so i couldn't hear their conversation if there was any. The enraged father pulled his son shirt off and gave it to the TSA agent to search, thats when this video begins.

For a caption that begins, "Lets get the facts straight first," it is exactly the opposite of helpful in that regard!  You almost have to go out of your way to not include when and where this happened.  In my experience when video posters leave out information like that there is usually a reason.

We see only 39 seconds.  We don't know what happened before or after.  The poster says the metal detector didn't go off but that the boy was selected for a pat-down anyway.  Is that what happened?  The father seems relatively clam.  Would you be?

On the other hand, we hear the announcement in the background for Southwest flight 2706 to Oakland.  If I'm reading the chart right, there does seem to have been a flight on the 19th with that number from Salt Lake City to Oakland.  You may also note that on the lukemtait youtube channel that the "recent activity" section notes a comment made by lukemtait on another video -- a trailer for a documentary critical of the Mormon church. Update:  A commenter asked why I mentioned the the Mormon connection -- it was to perhaps add support to the idea that this may really have been the Salt Lake City airport on the 19th.  There are Mormons everywhere of course!  But if the person who posted the video is a defender of the Mormon church, and if there was a Southwest flight 2706 from Salt Lake City to Oakland on the 19th...could these be clues to the videos legitimacy?

So is this video something that happened recently and is another sign of outrageous extremes at TSA screening?  Or will there be another explanation?  Post your thoughts to comments!

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