Knitting Needles Poke Security the Wrong Way
By GRANT STINCHFIELD
Updated 9:15 PM CST, Fri, Jul 31, 2009
A North Texas woman is asked to leave a Balch Springs Social Security office after a guard accused her of carrying dangerous weapons: her knitting needles.
“The armed guard came up to me and said I have to take that outside,” said Rachel Vines.
Vines said the only thing she was trying to kill inside the waiting room was time.
“I wasn't shoving them in people's faces going, 'look I have sharp pointy things,'" she said. "I was sitting there minding my own business trying to knit a sock.”
Apparently the Officer determined the five-inch knitting needles were a threat to the safety and security of those inside the building. The Federal Protective Service oversees security inside the building and would not answer questions about the incident, but it did email NBCDFW this statement:
“The Federal Protective Service (FPS) is responsible for keeping federal properties safe and secure for both employees and visitors. If an FPS guard determines that an object carried by a visitor could present a safety risk or be used by another person as a weapon, they may be asked to remove it from the building.”
People in the waiting room used words like “ridiculous” and “outrageous” when referring to the guards move to make Vines remove the needles.
Vines did put her yarn and knitting tools in the car but said she’s still flabbergasted by the whole ordeal.
“I cant even fathom what he was thinking," she said. "That I was going to harm someone by knitting? I just don’t get it."
First Published: Jul 30, 2009 5:44 PM CST
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