If you’ve travelled on a plane any time in, say, the last 10 years, you will have noticed that airport security’s a totally chilled-out breeze. Oh wait, no, that’s not right, they’re a bunch of paranoid jumped-up security freaks. Which would maybe explain why wearing something that looks more Genuine Al-Qaeda than Rolex would land you in some fairly hot water.

Geoffrey McGann is a Southern Californian man who likes making his own watches. Fair ’nuff, nothing wrong with that. Some of his creations, though, do look a bit like a Mythbusters special crossed with a a primary-school science project — loose wires and fuses spilling out all over the place. I’m kinda not surprised, then, that airport security at Oakland Airport didn’t take kindly to him trying to board a plane with this contraption strapped to his wrist, and took him into custody. All’s well that ends well though, as the police decided to drop charges, after giving him a dressing-down for his poor sense of humour. (Not to mention poor watch-building skill; I mean some of those soldered joints are just plain sloppy.)

Kids, moral of the story is: don’t mess with airport security. Whether it’s sending “joke” Twitter bomb threats, telling them that they’re doing their jobs wrong, or trying to wear a timepiece that looks like a C-list movie bomb, just don’t do it. Save it for G4S. [Mercury News via boingboing]

Image credit: Alameda County Sheriff’s Office