TSA confiscates monkey puppet's gun

Woman: Agent threatened to call police over tiny toy gun

ST. LOUIS – Hold it right there, partner! The TSA wouldn't allow a woman to take her cowboy sock monkey on a plane unless it gave up its tiny toy gun.

Phyllis May tells KING-TV she had just sewn the monkey to sell through her self-owned sock monkey business.

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While attempting to get through security at Lambert Airport in St. Louis, a TSA agent pulled May aside when a screener noticed the small toy gun.

May says the agent told her she had a gun in her bag. When May noticed what the agent was holding, she told the agent it was only a "prop" for the sock monkey.

"She said 'If I held it up to your neck, you wouldn't know if it was real or not,'" May told KING-TV. "And I said really? You're kidding me right?"

After threatening to call police, May says the agent gave her the sock monkey back without the gun.

According to TSA policy, agents will confiscate "realistic replicas" of guns.