TSA's Best 'Catches' of 2011

Americans love griping about the TSA, and with good reason. The TSA, for instance, pocketed an estimated $376,480 of your loose change in 2010, notes the Huffington Post. But before your blood pressure shoots too high, consider this: TSA officers stopped some crazy and dangerous things from boarding flights this year. On its blog (yes, the TSA has a blog), the much-maligned agency relates the top 10 "good catches" of 2011. Among the notables:

• A half-ounce of C4 explosives: a passenger flying out of Yuma said he just wanted to show it to his family

• A .380 pistol: strapped to the ankle of a 76-year-old trying to depart from Detroit; he claims to have forgotten it was there
• A pink smartphone: it was actually a stun gun, and it didn't make it through LAX
• A college student's science project: his device, made out of a mints tin and resembling an IED, was harmless, but shut down Omaha's airport all the same
• Snakes: seven, to be exact, in the pants of a man at the Miami airport

Click for the complete list, or click to read about more things about the TSA that annoy. (More Best of 2011 stories.)