Family Goes Through TSA. Then The Girl Ends Up In Tears After Popular Kids’ Toy Gets Confiscated: ‘She Snuck Them In’

Travel isn't easy. Even less so when you're 10 years old and being asked to get on an airplane without your beloved toys.

Recently one mom posted a TikTok of her daughter's airport meltdown for the world to see. With over 12 million views, a good portion of the internet surely saw it.

Moms Have Jokes Too

Pilates instructor and dietician Nikki Petrocelli (@Itsnikkipetrocelli) was taking her two children to the Bahamas when her daughter, Piper, told her she'd packed 12 Needohs for the beach trip.

They were about to be confiscated, but Piper didn't realize that. Her mother had to tell her, “I had the unfortunate job of explaining that the nice man we just spoke to had only checked our passports and we were now heading to the actual X-ray machine,” Petrocelli  wrote in an email to BoardingArea.

“Cue devastation,” she said.

The video has no dialogue, just a techno-remix of Jaques Offenbach's Can Can. shading the entire scene with Tom and Jerry-style hijinks.

As the video opens, Petrocelli's daughter can be seen wiping tears away. And there's no secret as to why since superimposed text on the screen explains: “Watch my daughter tell me right before the TSA screening she brought all her Needohs in her carry-on only to learn they're about to be taken.”

Then, the video becomes a montage of Piper crying and opening up her book bag while her brother smirks in the background.

“Her brother's smug grin while his sister's world was actively ending really was the perfect supporting performance,” said Petrocelli.

Needohs are, per the website, gel-filled sensory toys designed to relieve stress. In that way they're similar to a stress ball or fidget spinner.

Distracted By Mascara

The internet remains committed to providing feedback in the snarkiest possible tone. For this video, two themes emerge: the appropriateness of filming a crying child and posting it online. And the age at which it is okay to start wearing makeup.

“If we are young enough to cry over Needohs, then we are not old enough to wear eye makeup,” opined Spicymeatbol.

Hope Core Horror said, “Why are people filming children during vulnerable moments to be watched by strangers????”

But there were a few tough-love advocates in the crowd: “If she snuck them in after you told her not to then this is a good life lesson for her,” wrote brooke_morgan.

Responding to the criticism, Petrocelli said, Piper “is smart, funny, and confident […] In our house, makeup is something fun to play with, not something you need in order to be beautiful.”

Why Were The Needohs Confiscated?

The highly collectible toys have caused tears for many children this summer. Petrocelli speculated that the real reason for Piper's tears was the loss of “a very large, hard-to-find swirly Needoh, which I think explains at least some of the genuine heartbreak you see in the video. She wasn't losing a random squishy toy in her 10-year-old mind, TSA was about to take a prized possession!”

Because while parents just see one of the season's hottest toys, TSA agents see more than the allowable 3.4 ounces of gel. And for security purposes, the toys, no matter how cute, are still problematic unknowns.

Rules about toys like Needohs are available on the TSA website: gel-filled toys are allowed in carry-on luggage only if they contain 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters) of gel or less. Also, they must fit inside a quart-size bag alongside a traveler's other liquids. Larger gel-filled toys belong in checked luggage. However, the agency says “the final decision rests with the TSA officer on whether an item is allowed through the checkpoint.”

The ban on liquids and gels stems from two events: one a 1994 attack; the other a 2006 attempt that was prevented. The first involved a fatality and a hole blown in the side of an airplane. In the second, a British citizen with unsavory ties planned to replace the liquid in soda bottles with an explosive liquid by drilling a small, inconspicuous hole in the bottom of bottles. He was never able to put his plan into action, but the ban against outside liquids on flights remains because intelligence continues to inform agencies that the threat is ongoing.

If you can't conceive of paying airport prices for water, there is a workaround: bring an empty container and after you get through security. Too bad there isn't a similar Needoh solution available. As for Piper, her mom reported that she “has been introduced to some gel-exempt toys that fit TSA guidelines a little more comfortably, so we do have a more security-friendly travel plan going forward.”

@itsnikkipetrocelli

Instagram saw it first so, why not let a whole new platform and 30million new people see it.

♬ original sound – itsnikkipetrocelli