The ban on jokes at the airport security checkpoint “works both ways,” says a spokesman for Northwest Airlines.
A security guard who jokingly threatened to handcuff a 16-year-old passenger at O’Hare International Airport on April Fools’ Day has been fired and more heads may role, he said.
Scores of passengers have been arrested for joking about having bombs in their luggage, but airport officials say they don’t remember a security guard making such a joke before.
Peter Andriukaitis, a 16-year-old sophomore at Oak Park-River Forest High School was with his mom, Suzanne, heading to Charleston, S.C., for his grandfather’s 75th birthday party on April 1.
In his bag, he had a laptop computer he was bringing to help with homework during the vacation, he said.
“I put it on the conveyer belt,” Andriukaitis said Thursday. “I started to reach for the bag. “He said, `Is that your bag?’ I said, `Yes.’ He said, `How old are you?’ I said, `Sixteen.’ “
“I said, `What’s the problem here?’ ” Suzanne Andriukaitis said. “The guard said, `There’s a problem with this bag, ma’am.’
“He turned to one of the other security guards and said, `Do you have your cuffs?’ ” Peter Andriukaitis recalled the guard saying. ” `Can you step over here and put your hands behind your back?’ I did that. I could feel the other security guard right behind me,” he said.
“I was panicking totally and thinking this is the end of life as we’ve known it,” his mom said. “I thought, if there was something in there, they planted it. I’ve seen stories about this on TV where things like this happen to people and it changes their lives forever.”
Then, as quickly as it started, the officer said, “April Fools” and let them go.
“I said, `We’ve got a plane to catch,’ so we just walked to the plane, very nervous, for the rest of the trip,” he said.
Five days later, when they returned to O’Hare, Suzanne Andriukaitis stopped at the security desk and asked for the number of the head of security for the private firm, International Total Services, that contracts with Northwest Airlines to handle security.
Security officials, airline officials and city officials were shocked to hear her story, she said.
The guard who held the handcuffs but did not speak admitted they had played the joke on several passengers that day. He was fired, said Jon Austin, a spokesman for Northwest. The security firm is still trying to figure out which one of the guards did all the talking, Austin said.
The city’s Department of Aviation has started its own investigation, said spokesman Dennis Culloton.
