84-year-old claims TSA strip-search

(CBS/AP) 

Last Updated 4:50 p.m. ET

NEW YORK - An 84-year-old Long Island grandmother says she was injured and humiliated during a strip search at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

However, TSA said no strip search of Zimmerman was conducted.

Lenore Zimmerman of Long Beach, L.I., said she was on her way to a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., when she was whisked into a private room by security who removed her clothes.

Zimmerman, who is 4'11", told the New York Daily News she is hunched over, walks with a walker, weighs 110 pounds and is going to be 85 years old in July. "Do I look like a terrorist?" she asked.

Zimmerman says she was searched after she asked to forgo advanced image technology screening equipment because she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator.

The retired receptionist said she normally gets patted down at airline security. But this time, Zimmerman said, two female agents escorted her to a private area.

At one point, Zimmerman said, a metal bar of her walker banged against her leg and blood trickled from a gash. "My sock was soaked with blood. I was bleeding like a pig."

But, she said, the TSA agents showed no sympathy. Zimmerman said she got no response when she asked them, "Why are you doing this?"

TSA public affairs spokesperson Kristin Lee told CBS News that a review of closed circuit TV indicates that a "private screening was requested by the passenger, and was granted."

According to TSA sources, there was nothing unusual detected when Zimmerman and the security agents left the private screening area.

Lee told CBS News that "TSA screening procedures are conducted in a manner designed to treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy and that occurred in this instance.

"While we regret that the passenger feels she had an unpleasant screening experience, TSA does not include strip searches as part of our security protocols, and one was not conducted in this case."

[lebarnes]

When is the President and his Administration going to get a handle on the TSA? It appears to most of us on Main Street America that the TSA has no control over their employees who conduct the airport screening. 85 year old handicapped women are terrorists? Give me a break! This is one more example of our dysfunctional federal government going too far! I agree with airport screening but do it with some common sense and professionally. Ask the Israeli for screening guidelines. They know what they are doing. It is time for our US government to get its priorities straight!

[Webhoncho]

The US TSA is the laughingstock of all security organizations. I fly 40 weeks a year - only regular air travelers understand how incompetent is the TSA's one-size-fits-all approach to security. Israeli security experts shake their heads at the waste of time and money that the TSA represents. I believe Mrs. Zimmerman's story 100% because that's typical of the inept security processes followed by the TSA. So, does everyone feel much safer now?

[bccmee]

People are becoming complacent so while I sorry for this woman's ordeal, I am glad it is big news around the world. I have to thank this woman for being so outspoken. We need to keep our sense of outrage at the TSA or else someday down the line, the next generation of Americans will forget what it's like to travel without being treated like a criminal when in fact those who travel are victims of crimes.

[redmanno]

LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!!!
Give me a break, where was a family member to accompany her???. She refused to be searhed in public and requested a private seach.I bet she loved every minute of it and now wants to sue..........PLEASEEEEEEEEE. LOOK LADY NEXT TIME BRING YOUR SON, YOU KNOW THE ONE WHO WANTS TO SUE, MAYBE SOMEONE SHOULD SUE HIM FOR LEAVING YOU ALONE AT THE AIRPORT AN NOT CARING, NOW ALL OF A SUDDEN HE'S CONCERNED, ENOUGH TO SUE......GET A LIFE WILL YOU

[LeslieDF]

She was dropped off at the airport 40 minutes before her flight departure - in a wheelchair, with a walker.

She refused the scan and had to be patted down. It took 11 minutes.

End of story. Next time, a family member should accompany her from check-in to departure gate. Just like a child travelling alone.

The only "humiliation" suffered, is her seeking publicity, and getting it.

[Overruled1]

You must have been the TSA jerk that cut her then.

[LibertyInfusion]

The only reasonable explanation for your comment is that you are seeking to stoke the ire of the readers. You are saying it's OK to treat this lady like the TSA is accused of because a family member wasn't accompanying her. Leslie, you too, may be 85 I day and suffer the humiliation you expect of others, specifically, being treated "like a child." Judging by your comment and intellect, it's probably appropriate.

[djseavy]

The garbage about "if you don't like it don't fly" shows just how narrow-thinking some people can be. Unless I didn't get the memo, we still have constitutional rights in the USA. We are no safer today than before the TSA and Homeland Security started their reign of terror. I hope the lady brings a law suit big enough to double the national debt.

[Every0ne]

And - just becasue a TSA mouthpiece they "treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy and that occurred in this instance . . . TSA does not include strip searches as part of our security protocols, and one was not conducted in this case", we're supposed to believe it?

After past and ongoing experiecnes have proven, using TSA documents and later admissions, that they are not truthful?

[qmpash]

She was a mamber of ETO (Elderly Terrorist Organization.)

[gdod25]

Blah Blah, you complain but will do nothing. We say bend over, you say how far? You do what you are told, you are sheep.

[ToolMangler1]

Paybacks are hell, some sheep just look that way..

[soddydaisy55]

Far too many TSA employees are, well, undereducated. They are hired and placed in a position where they can make decisions without the benefit of ever learning any logic. The same happens in other law enforcement agencies.

In my opinion, if you can't use people who know how to do their job, you shouldn't be in the business!

[speakthetrut]

That's why the farmers in Alabama were using Latino workers. With the new immigration law in effect, those workers packed up and returned to Mexico. Oh well...

[roxydog44]

The whole point of government regulations is to avoid the possibility of individual discretion. TSA emplyees are not paid to think; they are paid to follow detailed instructions.