Obligatory TIFU didn't happen today, but back in January. My wife and I went to Orlando for my birthday. The actual trip was great, if a bit colder than we expected, but still a fantastic time. Until we got to MCO to fly home, that is.

We got there with tons of time to spare, but it was packed and security was a nightmare. We get up to the metal detectors and X-ray machines and unpack all our crap into bins, and start the process of going through the security checkpoint. My wife goes first and gets pulled aside for an invasive further screening leaving me to gather our mass of belongings spread out in the bins. So I grab my MacBook and cram it in my wife's purse, her carry on, her shoes, belt and coat. My hands are nearly full at this point, but the machine just keeps spitting the bins out and the people behind us are pissed at the delay, so I start fumbling to grab my bag, shoes, belt and wallet, my 3ds and oh shit, I almost forgot my MacBook. I'm way overloaded, but the people behind don't give a damn so I try to shuffle to the side to wait for my wife to get done with her screening. In the process of doing this I drop about three quarters of the crap I had and so I begin organizing things a bit, putting my MacBook in my backpack with my 3ds and wallet, rearranging all my wife's things so that I get it down to a manageable amount. Oh shit, I almost dropped my damned MacBook so I decide to hold it directly in my hands until my wife can help me with our junk.

Well, while I'm doing this, the woman behind me starts shrieking that her laptop is missing, that she can't find it and it was just here before it went through the machine. She comes up to me and tries to snatch my MacBook out of my hands, but I flip it around to show her my piranha plant sticker and prove it's mine. She goes back to flip out at the TSA guy working the X-ray machine and my wife comes up and we proceed to schlep our stuff into the food court area down the way.

We grab some food at the Ruby Tuesday's and I tell her about the woman trying to take my MacBook, which gave her a good laugh. I surf the web for a little bit and decide to pack the MacBook away for the flight and when I went to go put it in the computer pouch I always keep it in, there was already a MacBook there. It all clicked at once what must have happened so I go to return it to the woman. I get back to the security station and she's pinned to the floor in handcuffs, bawling her eyes out, because she was apparently getting arrested for assaulting a TSA agent. I didn't know what to do so I sheepishly walked up to one of the cops that was handling her and said, "Uh, I think I grabbed her laptop by mistake" and handed it to him. Through her tears she bawled out that I was the thief and the cops should arrest me not her when one of the cops said, "Lady, he just brought this back to you, if he is a thief, he's the worst damned one I've ever seen."

I didn't know what to do so I said sorry a couple of times and the cops shooed me away, so I left, and flew home. I don't honestly know if she was arrested or not because I can't find anything about the incident online and I have to believe that the local paper would have written about that sort of misunderstanding, but she was in handcuffs last I saw.

TL;DR:Grabbed a second MacBook in a moment of confusion and caused a woman to flip out and assault a TSA agent because she thought someone had stolen her laptop.