Confrontation With TSA Agent Leaves Grandpa's Ashes On Floor

Confrontation With TSA Agent Leaves Grandpa's Ashes On Floor

Indianapolis Man Furious Over Treatment At Florida Airport Checkpoint

POSTED: 5:42 pm EDT June 25, 2012
UPDATED: 7:30 pm EDT June 25, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS -- A man's attempt to bring the ashes of his grandfather
home to Indianapolis ended with an angry scene in a Florida airport,
with the ashes spilled on the terminal floor.
John Gross, a resident of Indianapolis' south side, was leaving
Florida with the remains of his grandfather -- Mario Mark Marcaletti,
a Sicilian immigrant who worked for the Penn Central Railroad in
central Indiana -- in a tightly sealed jar marked "Human Remains."
Gross said he didn't think he'd have a problem, until he ran into a
TSA agent at the Orlando airport.


"They opened up my bag, and I told them, 'Please, be careful. These
are my grandpa's ashes,'" Gross told RTV6's Norman Cox. "She picked up
the jar. She opened it up.
"I was told later on that she had no right to even open it, that they
could have used other devices, like an X-ray machine. So she opened it
up. She used her finger and was sifting through it. And then she
accidentally spilled it."
Gross says about a quarter to a third of thecontents spilled on the
floor, leaving him frantically trying to gather up as much as he could
while anxious passengers waited behind him.
"She didn't apologize. She started laughing. I was on my hands and
knees picking up bone fragments. I couldn't pick up all, everything
that was lost. I mean, there was a long line behind me."
TSA rules say a crematory container in carry-on baggage must pass
through the X-ray machine at the security checkpoint.
But the agency's own website says human remains are to be opened
under, 3no circumstances.4
"I want an apology,4 said Gross. 3I want an apology from TSA. I want
an apology from the lady who opened the jar and laughed at me. I want
them to help me understand where they get off treating people like
this."