California

Safety Over Sexy: Woman Stopped at BWI Over Gun-Shaped High Heels With Mock Bullets

The heel manufacturer is warning customers to use caution when they wear or carry the platforms

At the airport, safety is more important than sexy.

That's what a woman found out this weekend at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Officials say she was stopped at a security checkpoint Sunday because she was carrying a pair of stilettos with gun-shaped high heels. 

The silver stilettos shown in a photo provided by the Transportation Security Administration have heels in the shape of guns, with mock bullets around the sides of the high platform soles.

The woman was carrying the shoes in her carry-on luggage, along with matching bracelets lined in faux bullets, TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein told the Associated Press. 

The agency prohibits passengers from carrying "replica guns or ammunition" through airport security checkpoints.

Farbstein says the woman was told that she could put the items in her checked luggage. She tried to check the items, but ended up leaving them with the TSA so she wouldn't miss her flight. 

The 7.5-inch plastic heels are made by the California-based company Pleaser USA, Inc., which calls itself the "leader in sexy and alternative footwear."

The wholesaler has made novelty stilettos with gun-shaped heels for about 10 years, company spokeswoman Elody Romero told News4. The design of shoes the woman was stopped with at BWI has been discontinued, but the related line is a top seller.

Lady Gaga regularly wears Pleaser USA's ultra-high heels, Romero said, and actress and musician Taylor Momsen wore the gun-shaped heels on the cover of hard rock magazine Revolver in 2010. The stilettos cost $60 to $85 per pair.

"This is definitely the first time we've heard of a problem with our shoes," the company spokeswoman said.

Pleaser USA will immediately start putting notices in boxes of shoes with gun-shaped heels warning buyers to use caution when they wear or carry the platforms.

"We don't want anyone to have issues with their flights, in case people put them in their carry-on instead of checking them," Romero said. "You would never assume that a heel with a gun shape on it would have this kind of feedback from the TSA."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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