TV Host Battling Breast Cancer Says TSA Search ‘Humiliated’ Her

TSA has seen its fair share of conversations about privacy versus safety, and this new viral tale is taking that rhetoric to a new level. Denise Albert, a New York mother and television host battling breast cancer, posted a video of her TSA search to Facebook, saying that the agents “went too far.”

“I have never been so humiliated or felt more violated in my life,” Albert wrote. “I went through the scanning machine at the airport without incident. I had already told them about my metal port and my medical cream which I removed from my bag for them to see and test as I have done on prior flights. I don’t know what was different this time but TSA agents aggressively attempted to do a body cavity search in public.”

In an update on her post appended the following day, Albert clarifies that she was in TSA pre-check when she was asked to remove her shoes for inspection. “They then started to tell me they would apply pressure from head to toe and I got very upset because I wear a wig,” Albert recalled, saying she took her wig off herself so they could inspect her head.

Albert says another member of the airport’s TSA staff stepped in to help her: “A supervisor was kind enough to have more compassion and possibly think the 2 agents went too far and took me into a private room for a regular soft pat down.” But she doesn’t want the agents in her video to subject other survivors to the intense search. “Today the 2 TSA agents in my video went too far and even threatened to call police. I hope no one ever experiences this.”

According to Albert’s update on December 6, TSA has apologized for the incident and promised to offer more training to current employees.

[h/t ABC7]