Scanning recent Twitter messages by people I follow, I noticed this bit by Crystal King:
Curious, I clicked the link and was redirected to a blog post about a woman named Nic who was separated from her toddler at Atlanta’s airport because of a pacifier clip that set off the x-ray machine. According to the story, TSA officials physically checked her son while she was in another room.
She writes:
He was taken away from me and OUT OF MY SIGHT because his pacifier clip went off when I carried him through the metal detector.
According to the Transportation Security Administration website, “We will not ask you to do anything that will separate you from your child or children.”
Bullshit TSA.
You took my son. MY SON.
Her story is emotional, perhaps too emotional; and a bell rang off in my head. Who is this woman, I wondered.
I clicked her “follow me on Twitter” link and scanned through recent tweets of @mybottlesup.
First, I noticed her Twitter profile indicates she writes in lowercase letters. Not so in the above blog extract with proper capitalization at the beginning of every sentence.
Second, I noticed she had tweeted thank you messages to dozens of other Twitter users in response to her traumatic blog post.
Third, I noticed she tweeted she removed the blog post’s comments (and ability to add future comments) because of “trolls.” Google’s cache indicates 316 comments once existed.
Finally, fourth, I noticed she retweeted a link to the TSA’s blog.
Here’s where it gets interesting.
TSA blogger Bob writes a heartfelt response and includes a video clip from the airport that shows the woman was never separated from her child.
Perusing through the comments, disregarding questions about why the woman was asked to stand in a holding area and why she stood there–with child–for about 10 minutes, the question in my mind was how did TSA know this was the same woman.
TSA blogger Lynn comments about halfway down:
As soon as we saw the blog post, we reached out to the Atlanta airport. TSA at the Atlanta airport contacted Nic, but she didn’t respond.
The blog post gave some key details: the airport, the gate (which can pinpoint the checkpoint) and an approximate time. The post also notes things that happened – the passenger calling out to people and officers from the holding area, and a female passenger getting Nic’s bags for her. All of these details were helpful.
The blog has numerous pictures of the woman, the baby and the stroller. They match the video.
We take claims like this seriously, and the TSA staff at ATL used the information to pull the CCTV tape within a window of time that matched details in the blog post.
Nic was contacted more than once by TSA yesterday, but as of last night, had not responded.
The plot thickens. Did Nic write fiction?
Twitter is going crazy with mentions of @mybottlesup.
Online forum boards are lighting up from Democratic Underground to Flyer Talk. On the latter, it’s intriguing to note the tone of the posts on the first two pages, and then how the tone shifts after TSA releases the video.
Natalie Rea asks the same questions on her blog, seeking the truth from Nic. Twitter messages to her go unanswered.
Echoing some comments on TSA’s blog post, a stumbler questions whether the video was doctored.
Where are you, Nicole?
Guess who’s about to get an email message seeking the truth?
UPDATE: Nic posted this update as to her whereabouts and answering questions. Judging from the comments, was she sincere? You decide.
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Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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I have to say I was a bit skeptical whin I saw this on her twitter stream the day this all happened.
http://twitter.com/MyBottlesUp/status/4904772161
Good luck getting an answer. We called her, emailed her to several addresses, and tweeted to her for a comment and nothing. We started our attempts before the TSA made their initial response yesterday afternoon, and again after they released the video.
She lives in military housing adjacent to the USNA and emails to he husband’s email address were also not returned.
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She’s since blogged an update. See above.
I’m sure this is one of many stories, the flip side of social media. The truth travels fast, so does deception… and the revealing of that deception. People definitely need to be more discerning
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IMO its just another gimmick to get some blog/site traffic!
this is extremely black SEO hehehe!
This is another reason why I am very careful on my internet transactions and other activities as no one really know who is at the end of the line
thanks for your ideas…
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Now it’s getting interesting. She’s basically accusing the TSA of doctoring or selectively editing the video:
I didn’t notice any discrepancies in the timestamp on the video, though of course that’s easy to fake if someone at ATL wanted to cover their rear. For the moment, I’m assuming the video is undoctored and Nic has a false memory of what happened. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
I don’t think this is a deception, at least not for more traffic. I do think that it is a woman who may have been a bit too emotional to write a blog post, and didn’t think that such a giant, generally non-responsive organization like TSA would be able to round up video of her, etc. etc.
I’m not going to comment on her character since I don’t know her, and wouldn’t dare judge someone I’ve never met. That said, this does all smell a little fishy, you know? Just in the sense that, to me at least, it seems like she would be much angrier in her recent response post if everything she said was true. Very, very defensive is the emotional response I’d expect. On the other hand, maybe she’s just trying to be the better person and see where things go. But when someone asks questions like “Am I a dramatic writer? Yes.” well… as Ari says, I’ll let you decide.
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In many way’s I’m glad this is over for all involved. Nic has and will continue to take a major bashing and discrediting online over the next few days. The 400+ comments on her rebuttal post are proof of that.
If she is as ill as claims have been made, then perhaps it is time for her to find a less public medium to write in. Such a public display and the subsequent response from the online world cannot be good for her… or her son in the long run.
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All I can think about is that something MUST have happened to provoke her to the point of writing that blog. Something happened, we all may never know the truth. I just hope she gets help, because it seems like she needs something.
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