So True? So False? Was Jersey Shore's JWoww Deliberately Singled Out by Airport Security?!

Reality starlet lashes out on Twitter after claiming to be "treated like a criminal" by TSA in North Dakota

By Gina Serpe Nov 15, 2011 7:19 PMTags
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It's a case of he said, she said. The "he" in this case being The Man.

Jersey Shore's newly made-over mama JWoww caused quite a stir over the weekend when she lashed out at the Transportation Security Administration, claiming that there was nothing random about her pat-down screening at the Fargo airport, and that airline heavies not only deliberately singled her out before she entered the security line, but practically pulled her off the plane for a last-minute check.

"Fargo ND airport just treated me like a criminal!" she tweeted.

But is it true? Did the TSA single out the reality star for unnecessary additional measures? Remove those liquids now, because this rumor is…

So false!

Despite what the girl born Jenni Farley would have us believe, the TSA has confirmed to E! News that their agents were working well within the realm of standard, acceptable screening practices and that no negative special treatment was given to the star.

"Holy s--t!" she tweeted not long after the encounter. "Travel 2x a week and never went thru what I did here :(

"I've been patted down a bunch n don't mind but after I'm getting on a plane seems odd and deliberate to me. Hate when people abuse authority."

The MTV personality even pointed to an earlier encounter she had with a TSA agent as proof that her extra screening wasn't as arbitrary as they'd have her believe.

"I wasn't randomly selected cuz I saw the tsa there pointing at me while I was getting a coffee 15 min prior."

Maybe they just recognized her?

The TSA denied to E! News all allegations of any less than professional behavior on their agents' behalf, saying that while it might have been unfamiliar procedure for the frequent flier, all actions were well within standard practice for airport employees—and that JWoww's supposed singling out wasn't so singular after all.

"As part of TSA's layered approach to security, passengers may be subject to various random screening measures at the checkpoint or the gate," they said. "In this case, a number of passengers were randomly selected according to a preset protocol for gate screening prior to boarding an aircraft."

And as for what, exactly, constituted JWoww's "criminal" treatment?

"This particular screening protocol consisted of a simple swab of passengers' hands and did not include a pat down or additional screening of carry-on items. TSA strives to screen all passengers with dignity and respect while performing its security mission. TSA employs an intelligence-driven, risk-based security approach to screen the nearly 1.8 million passengers traveling daily."

Well, with 1.8 million passengers daily you're bound to tick one of them off once in a while.