84-year-old grandmother says airport security strip-searched her

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Forget the slogan, "Don't touch my junk."

How about "Don't make Grandma strip"?

Lenore Zimmerman, an 84-year-old New York grandmother, claims she was humiliated and forced to take off her clothes during an airport security screening after she declined to go through a body scanner because she feared it would interfere with her defibrillator, the Associated Press reports.

"I'm hunched over. I'm in a wheelchair. I weigh under 110 pounds (50 kilograms) and I'm going to be 85 in February. Do I look like a terrorist?" Ms. Zimmerman told the news service. "This was the worst experience."

Ms. Zimmerman said she was at JFK International Airport last week on her way Fort Lauderdale, Fla., when she approached security in a wheelchair, with her metal walker in her lap. When she was asked to be patted down instead of passing through an imaging machine, she was taken to a private screening room and made to strip, the Associated Press says. She also said she banged her shin during the screening and bled heavily, prompting an emergency medical technician to patch her up. She missed her flight, and had to take another one more than two hours later.

"I don't know what triggered this. I don't know why they singled me out," she said.

The Transportation Security Administration, however, told the Associated Press in a statement that strip searches are not part of its security protocol, and that no strip search was conducted. The statement said the passenger requested private screening, which lasted about 11 minutes. A closed-circuit television at the airport showed proper procedure was followed, but the private screening was not recorded. There were also no records showing she received medical attention.

Given all the airport security nightmare stories we've heard over the years, Ms. Zimmerman's story doesn't sound improbable.

What's your worst airport security experience?