New York – An 85-year-old New York grandmother said Saturday she was injured and humiliated when she was strip searched at an airport after she asked to be patted down instead of going through a body scanner.
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Lenore Zimmerman said she was taken to a private room and made to take off her pants and other clothes after she asked to forgo the screening because she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator. She missed her flight and had to take one 2 1/2 hours later, she said.
“I’m hunched over. I’m in a wheelchair. I weigh under 110 pounds,” she said from her winter home at a seniors community in Coconut Creek, Fla. “Do I look like a terrorist?”
But the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement Saturday no strip search was conducted.
“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,” the statement read.
Zimmerman was dropped off by her son at Kennedy Airport for a 1 p.m. flight Tuesday to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on JetBlue, she said. She arrived to the ticket counter around 12:20 p.m. and headed for security in a wheelchair, her small, metal walker in her lap.
She’s been traveling to Florida for at least a decade and has never had a problem being patted down until now, she said. “I worry about my heart, so I don’t want to go through those things,” she said, referring to the advanced image technology screening machines now in place at the airport.
As a result, she said, she was taken into the private screening room by one agent and made to strip.
“Private screening was requested by the passenger, it was granted and lasted approximately 11 minutes,” the statement read. “TSA screening procedures are conducted in a manner designed to treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy and that occurred in this instance.”
The private screening was not recorded.
A review of closed-circuit television at the airport showed that proper procedures during the rest of her screening were followed, Jonathan Allen, a TSA spokesman, said in a statement.
Zimmerman, who spends half the year in Long Beach, N.Y., said she banged her shin during the process and it bled “like a pig,” partly because she is on blood-thinning medication. She said an emergency medical technician patched her up, but she was told to see a doctor when she arrived in Florida to make sure the wound didn’t get infected. There are no records indicating medical attention was called on her behalf.
“I don’t know what triggered this. I don’t know why they singled me out,” she said.
Her son Bruce Zimmerman said he’d like to see someone fired and screeners re-trained after his mother’s ordeal.
“My mother is a little old woman. She’s not disruptive or uncooperative,” he said Saturday. “I don’t understand how this happened.”
He said she’s had an increasingly difficult time traveling, especially since her husband died a few years ago. She has two grandchildren, and her older son, a doctor, died in 2007.
Meanwhile, Lenore Zimmerman said she was healing, planned to go to the grocery store on Saturday and take it easy. The weather was about 76 degrees and sunny, and she’s not headed back to an airport until April when she returns to New York.
“Thank goodness,” she said. “It will give me some time to brace myself for the return flight.”
The TSA says she was not strip searched and they have tapes to support their version of what happened. This woman’s lawsuit will be thrown out of court. She would probably be better off simply not flying.
Can you read? It says the private screenIng was NOT recorded
To #1 - You have no compassion for this poor, old lady. How would like to be singled out by the TSA, taken to a private room, and made to remove your clothes?
If she is 85 years old in a wheelchair, why isn’t someone flying with her?
The videotapes show her being taken to the room, but don’t show what actually happened in the room.
Brucy boy doesn’t have time to accompany mommy to the gate, so he simply drops off his poor wheelchair bound mother at the curb by the airport. But when mommy gets a little manhandled by security, he has all the time in the world to waste everyones time with this lawsuit. Lenore must be kvelling.
Such a shame the TSA can’t institute the Israeli model, works so much better.
” An 85-year-old New York grandmother said Saturday she was injured and humiliated”
I’m humiliated that a fellow Jew would be such a greedy liar and people will lump me in the same boat with her.
“because she worried it would interfere with her defibrillator”
Is that what her doctor told her? Or perhaps she made up that medical factoid herself.
“She said an emergency medical technician patched her up”
“There are no records indicating medical attention was called on her behalf.”
Apparently she admits medical attention was called.
“Her son Bruce Zimmerman said he’d like to see someone fired”
That’s right, Bruce, you stick it to ’em. Doesn’t matter what happened. Mom’s upset? Someone’s gotta pay.
Hey Bruce: Did your mother let you travel alone at age 11. Did she drop you off at the airport like a tuna sandwich. Shame on you. Now you want pity. Regardless of how wrong the TSA is. Mommy who he probably never looks at was mistreated. When was the last time you took her out or made her an egg omelet?
We all know, the American system of checking is a futile attempt as long as they refuse to do “profiling” and as long as th ACL has a say in how security can do its job etc. Where’s the outrage at the ACL’s hurting everyone else civil liberties by not protecting us properly by allowing this to go on this way and not do racial profiling? How many more terrorist attacks will it take?
Yea, she really looks like a terrorist. I can see why TSA costs America a few billion bucks a year. If they would use intelligent people to check, they might do things better, more efficient and cost less in the long run.
If the TSA took myou MEN aside for 11 minutes they would not be twiddling their thumbs!! They would be giving you a strip search!! She is 85 years old!! It takes her a little longer!! How fast will you move at 85 years years old and she is on blood thinners!! What did these birds do for 11 minutes?? I believe HER!!
She doesn’t look like a terrorist to me! They should be profiling along with searching, this way they would not subject innocent grandmothers to stupid strip searches…..a humiliating experience to say the least.