ROMULUS, Michigan - June 9, 2011 - The Mandy family was on their way to the happiest place on earth, but had to go through hell to get there.
The family was headed through airport security at Detroit International Airport when two Transporation Security Administration agents singled out Drew Mandy for a special pat down. Drew is severely mentally disabled. He's 29, but his parents said he has the mental capacity of a two-year-old, which made the experience that followed at the McNamera Terminal that much harder.
"You have got to be kidding me. I honestly felt that those two agents did not know what they were doing," said Drew’s father, Dr. David Mandy.
Mandy claimed they asked Drew to place his feet on the yellow shoe line, something he didn't understand. They proceeded to pat his pants down, questioning the padding that was his adult diapers. When the agents asked Drew to take his hand and rub the front and back of his pants so they could swab it for explosives, his dad stepped in and tried to explain that Drew was mentally challenged.
"They said, 'Please, sir, we know what we're doing,'" Mandy said.
The TSA agents saw drew holding a six-inch plastic hammer.
"My son carries his ball and hammer for security. He goes everywhere with (them)," said Mandy.
However, TSA saw the toy as a weapon.
"He took the hammer and he tapped the wall. 'See, it's hard. It could be used as a weapon,'" Mandy explained. "So, Drew's also holding the ball, and I said, 'Well, how about the ball?' He (said), 'Oh, he can keep that.’”
Dr. Mandy was told he would need to have the toy shipped if he wanted to keep it, a process that caused them to almost miss their plane, so he ended up discarding it.
"It just killed me to have to throw it away because he's been carrying this for like 20 years," said Mandy.
Disgusted, he wrote TSA a letter. A response wasn't far behind.
"Very polite. Very apologetic. He was embarrassed. He (said) we have to review how we deal with special needs individuals. Obviously, he (said), we're doing a terrible job," Mandy told us. "It made me feel that there is still hope, that there is still justice and that there's still somebody who listens to people's problems (in) the federal government. That's because federal security told him there are 800 TSA agents at Metro Airport and they are all going to be retrained based on Drew's case.
We also spoke to a federal security director who said this incident is still under investigation, but, as far as they can tell right now, better judgment was needed.
The TSA took away one toy hammer, but they were still able to take another toy hammer on board the airplane. How did that happen?
Drew's mother, always prepared, had another one in her backpack and that backpack passed through security with no problem.
