The one that sticks in my mind at Heatrow transit was the poor old lady who had been stupidly allowed to board a plane in Canada with an antique walking stick. On arriving at Heathrow security (just ahead of me) she was told in no uncertain terms "you can't go through with this! It could be used as a weapon!" Fair enough I thought; this little old 70 something woman may well be able to batter someone with a walking stick. To my amazement, it wasn't the stick itself but the ca. 3/4 inch ornate brass ferrule on the bottom. The over-zealous guard produced from his pocket a pair of pliers and roughly unscrewed the offending item (About as sharp as my little finger) and returned the walking stick to the poor woman, who by now was in a state of shock. She whispered "Can I get it back when I return?". "No it will be destroyed!" came the reply. I must say that now I try to avoid LHR as a transit airport because of this incident! That and having to wait 45 minutes to pass through the single security point open for Terminal 4 transit passengers.