Toddlers Fart Blaster Toy Confiscated By Airport Staff

It comes to something when airport staff deem it necessary to confiscate a fart blaster toy belonging to a toddler.

The offending item, a gun shaped toy that features in the popular children’s film Minions,  was confiscated by security officials at Dublin airport who said it posed a security threat.

Three year old Leo Fitzpatrick was left distraught after staff took the object because it apparently posed a risk and had to be seized under rules governing replica weapons. The security officer even told the family that he had bought the same toy for his own child but still had to follow the procedures.

The Mail Online reports:

The airport said toy guns – especially those with a trigger mechanism – are on the prohibited items list.

Leo was travelling home from a trip to see his mother’s family in Dublin when his Minion Fart Blaster toy showed up on the airport’s x-ray machine.

Officials asked his mother Daire, 25, to empty his backpack and revealed the plastic megaphone toy, which lights up and makes rude noises when the trigger is pulled.

The family, from Nottingham, were then left bemused when security officials said it posed a risk and had to be seized under rules governing replica weapons.

The youngster, who had only received the £25 loud speaker as a present from his grandfather the day before, had to put on a brave face while his favourite toy was confiscated.

Leo’s mother said: ‘He was devastated. He is very well behaved and very polite, and he said “of course” and left it but he is very upset and doesn’t understand why he’s sharing his toy with the man.

‘It was such a shame. If you look at it it’s just ridiculous it could be considered a weapon. I mean, would you shake with fear if I pointed a Minions Fart Blaster at you?

‘It just looks like a megaphone – it doesn’t look like a gun. I said to the man it can’t be construed as a weapon and he said “I know, but the button looks slightly trigger-like”.

‘I was fuming at the time. I just had to say “I’m so sorry Leo”.’

She claimed the security official even said his own child had the same toy.

Ms Fitzpatrick, who is pregnant, said: ‘I thought he was going to just take it out and realise what it was and that would be that.

‘But he said “I’m so sorry it’s got a trigger, it doesn’t even look like a toy gun, but because it has a trigger mechanism it is in writing that I have to take it”.

‘Even though the security officer admitted that his child has the same toy and he was fully aware of its function and the reality of its threat level, he said he was forced to take it away.’