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‘I just got pulled aside by TSA’: Woman stopped at airport for carrying ‘something crazy’ in carry-on luggage
Influencer Chloé Gray ruffled feathers online after packing a whole rotisserie chicken as her in-flight meal, prompting TSA scrutiny and fierce debate.
Chloé Gray, a lifestyle influencer from New York, has cooked up quite a stir online and not because of a viral recipe. While heading to California from New Jersey with a layover, Gray drew attention at Newark Liberty International Airport for what Transportation Security Administration agents described as “something crazy” in her bag: an entire rotisserie chicken, reported the New York Post.
“I just got pulled aside by TSA for having ‘something crazy’ in my bag,” Gray told her 458,000 TikTok followers. “A whole rotisserie chicken.”
The unexpected protein-packed carry-on left security surprised and the internet divided. “I gotta get my protein in [during] the flight,” she explained, pulling the bird from her Whole Foods Market bag. “This is how you give yourself a first-class experience without paying for first class,” she added, noting the meal would sustain her throughout her eight-hour travel day.
Online reactions were swift and unforgiving
“No-fly list,” one outraged commenter demanded, while another declared, “Someone sitting next to me on a plane pulling out a rotisserie chicken would be my last straw.”
A third added, “The strong smell on the flight is diabolical,” and others joined in with jabs like, “I fear I’ve never sided with TSA before this,” and, “You. Are. Out. Of. Your. Mind.”
Despite the outcry, Gray was allowed to bring the chicken on board. She later clarified her reasons, saying the move was less about spectacle and more about planning.
“I get scared at the thought of being trapped for hours without something to eat — you could call it food anxiety,” she told People, explaining her dislike of airport fast food options. “For health reasons, specifically managing my blood sugar, I usually try to bring something on the healthier side to give me clean energy.”
Though she admits she could have picked something more discreet, like a salad or a bag of nuts, Gray insisted the rotisserie chicken was both practical and stylish.
“I grabbed the chicken because it was conventionally packaged, it has a chic top handle which makes it easy to carry throughout the airport, and it’s easily disposable,” she said. “Some people travel with designer bags. But my designer bag just happened to be a bag of rotisserie chicken.”
