Ellen Pompeo has revealed that she was detained by TSA and had a bomb squad called in after she attempted to board a plane with sunflower seeds in her carry-on luggage back in March.
The Grey’s Anatomy star said that she even offered to throw the offending seeds in the trash, but officials wouldn’t let her leave until the bomb specialists had examined them.
Ellen opened up about the incident in a new interview with Travel + Leisure, where she insisted that she still loves to travel despite the recent hiccup, which saw her set off the alarms as she went through TSA.
“I had a bag of sunflower seeds, like organic sunflower seeds from Erewhon, so they were probably the most expensive sunflower seeds money can buy,” Ellen began. “They literally held me for an hour, and they brought the bomb squad in.”
“I was like: ‘What is happening? Is this a joke?’” she recalled. “They said it was most likely a chemical on the packaging of these super expensive, fancy, organic, clean sunflower seeds. My protein on the plane!”
“I almost missed the flight,” Ellen added. “It was really like no one would ever believe this! I was texting my publicist saying: ‘I might not get on this plane, and you’re never gonna guess why.’”
Have you ever triggered TSA alarms over something totally harmless? Let me know in the comments below!
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