CREEPY SITUATION AT HUNT VALLEY LIGHT RAIL

This morning I forgot to set my alarm clock and ended up getting to work pretty late. However, on the up note, as I was leaving out the door I found ten dollars in a Christmas card that I had forgotten about.

The real drama of the day happened at the end of the day as I was headed to the light rail station for home. This afternoon as luck would have it a co-worker volunteered to drive me over to the Hunt Valley light rail stop. It was a little before 4PM when I arrived at the stop. I could not help but notice that the entire station was blocked off by orange netting. I also noticed police cars were all around the place. The entire scene made me feel apprehensive about entering it. There was a police man there who guided me towards this blue and white tent. When I first saw the tent as we were driving up to the station I thought that maybe it was one of those tents that they have set up to sell flowers. When I went through the tent I noticed that it was crawling with TSA agents. They were holding some kind of a transportation test.

I walked into the tent as directed and handed my jacket and bag over to a TSA agent to go through what I assume was an X-ray machine. Then I was told to walk through what I assumed was a metal detector. As I walked through the metal detector I was greeted by a hard blast of air. I became startled. Then a short Latina TSA agent said that I would have to be patted down because I moved. She then patted me down like a common criminal.

When I left the area to wait for my train I felt shaky and uneasy. I felt as though my rights were violated. The only thing I could think to do was to take pictures of the scene. My hands were shaking with each picture I took. I became afraid that maybe they would confiscate my camera. Luckily, neither the police nor the TSA agents took my camera away. Even as I write this I feel uneasy. What was it that I was blast with while I was in the metal detector? Was it a harmless puff of air or something more sinister? The whole experience was like something out of the X-Files. I hope that tests like this will not become commonplace on the MTA.

Below are three pictures I took of the situation. I did not take pictures of the inside because I am sure that if I did that, that would guarantee they would take my camera away.... permanently.

TSAatHuntValley, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

TSAatHuntValley3, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

TSAatHuntValley2, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

Here's a slightly tighter view of the back of the TSA set up with the white building.