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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kevin McGonigal, post: 11713607, member: 72790&quot;]A funny little story here about an incident at an airport in a Mediterranean country some years ago. I purchased an object at a local emporium, what looked like an ancient gladius sword. The sale was completed with the expected haggling over the price, and my payment in a combination of travelers checks and local currency. I was assured that it had been &quot;discovered&quot; at a local site and was clearly an authentic antique. He also assured me he could make its exportation legal. The sword did indeed look nice, though the metal screamed, &quot;not that old&quot; and the price was right. Sure enough a guy in some kind of blue uniform shows up, produces a printed official looking document with blank spaces to be filled in which he did. He then took a red ink stamp and plastered several stampings on it and I walked away with an impressive gladiator&#039;s sword and even more impressive legal exportation papers, though they were in a language I couldn&#039;t understand a word of. Now at the airport. I had been instructed to present the sword, wrapped in brown paper, and the export papers when I hit the security area along with my passport. Sure enough a number of people gathered around the gate, examined the sword and the papers and waved me through, proudly holding the barely wrapped sword. One last gate, the security check. Nobody seemed to care about the sword with the 20 inch blade I was carrying in my hand. They found in my trousers a pocketknife,&nbsp; one of those army type penknives with a two inch blade and an assortment of tools on it. , That was a problem and they took it from me, but not the sword. I was not about to start an argument so I said good bye to the pocket knife. When we landed as I exited the aircraft a steward from the cockpit stopped me and said, &quot;I believe this is yours&quot; and handed back the pocketknife. Moral of the story? Beats me.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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