Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope

A local friend of mine worked in customs at DXB for a while. A surprising amount of their activity consisted in confiscating said articles from sheepish passengers though the customs officers generally seemed to handle it in reasonably good humour, at least as my friend reported it. Bags showing suspicious objects would be flagged on the x-ray in the main baggage hall and marked to be pulled over by the guards at the exit for further x-ray (you didn't think it was random?). It was mostly men, and they usually batted for our team. One middle-aged Swiss guy in particular had a hair-raising selection of implements and was quite miffed to have to surrender them. Alas for him, he didn't realise that my statuesque bear-loving friend (whose build could make that cheap blue polyester uniform look unbelievably good) would have been quite happy to substitute for the confiscated items with something live that would have made even that old queen's eyes water....