(click to see additional items confiscated by the TSA)



Transportation Security Administration workers can face real danger, as was demonstrated during the deadly shooting at Los Angeles International Airport last month.





Still, confiscating a sock monkey's sidearm? Washington state resident Phyllis May told Seattle's King5.com that she was chastised by a TSA agent over the fact that her stuffed sock monkey (name: Rooster Monkburn, a takeoff on Rooster Cogburn of "True Grit" fame) carried a toy pistol.

May told King5.com that she and her husband were going through security at St. Louis International Airport when a TSA agent held up one of her bags and asked who it belonged to.

May, who sells customized sock monkeys online, told the agent it belonged to her. That's then things took a turn for the surreal.

Via King5.com:

“She said, 'This is a gun,’ ” said May. “I said no, it’s not a gun it’s a prop for my monkey.”



“She said if I held it up to your neck, you wouldn’t know if it was real or not, and I said, 'Really?’ ” said May.





The "gun" is roughly the size of three quarters placed end-to-end. The TSA agent took Rooster's gun and told May that she was supposed to contact the police. May asked the agent if she was kidding, and the agent assured her that she wasn't.

According to King5.com, the agent did not alert the police. May did get the rest of her sewing supplies back. No word on what happened to Rooster's gun, but May was able to see the humor in the situation.

Via King5.com:

“Rooster Monkburn has been disarmed so I’m sure everyone on the plane was safe,” she said. “I understand she was doing her job but at some point doesn’t common sense prevail?”



Follow Mike Krumboltz on Twitter at @mikekrumboltz.