There once was a man so angry about having to throw away his toothpaste in the airport security checkpoint, he whipped out his toothbrush and brushed his teeth right there.

“He didn’t have any cavities that day,” said TSA officer Mark Hogan.

Then there was a man whose can of wood stripper was sent back to be placed in checked luggage. When he came through again, security discovered the can strategically placed in his underwear, giving new meaning to the term: artful concealment.

Such are the quirky interactions between passengers and security officials at the Colorado Springs Municipal Airport. In the post-9/11 age of air travel, despite news stories and government advertisements on prohibited items, the things people try to get through the metal detectors and X-ray machines are hilarious, when not horrifying.

Other than the daily confiscated liquids, gels, pocket knives and tools (a hefty mallet among them) that people “forgot” were in their bags, people nationwide try to bring wacky items like 6-foot spears and fully gassed boat engines and chainsaws, said Carrie Harmon, a TSA spokeswoman.

Colorado Springs’ small airport has yet to see anything at that level of head-scratching, but TSA officials here see their fair share of silliness.

In the holiday travel rush a few years ago, an Air Force Academy cadet going home for Christmas was caught with a lab rat in his pocket, said Jeffery Duckett, a TSA manager at the Springs airport. Some live animals are allowed on planes, but travel must be first arranged through the airline and animals must be in carriers.

The cadet said the rat had served its duty in the lab and he was taking it home as a pet.

“Ultimately he made his flight but the rat didn’t,” Duckett said.

With metal detectors serving as a single filter for people from all walks of life, such discoveries are inevitable. Though passenger numbers are down about 16 percent nationwide and the Springs has seen a slowdown, local TSA officers process between 1,200 and 2,000 passengers a day; between 3,200 and 3,700 a day during peak travel season between November and January, Duckett said.

Though passengers are given the option of taking prohibited items back to their car or handing them to non-traveling , about 250 prohibited items per month are confiscated, Duckett said, the Springs’ small drop in the bucket of 51 million prohibited items confiscated nationwide since the TSA’s inception in early 2002, Harmon said.

Some airports — but not the Springs — offer mail kiosks so passengers can mail items that would otherwise be confiscated.

Passengers who try to bring through guns, ammunition, explosives, large amounts of pepper spray and certain knives can be fined from $250 to $10,000 and could face criminal charges.

Despite the suspicions of some, TSA officials do not put all the Leathermans they take away for sale on eBay. Everything other than liquids and gels is sent to the General Services Administration, which then auctions them, Harmon said.

Surprising and interesting items can also lurk in checked baggage, which is also screened.

A Springs airport TSA official once opened a checked bag to find a soggy, bloody mess of freshly cut cow tongue. The passenger later explained the tongues were to be used in celebration of an upcoming Jewish holiday. TSA officials helped more securely and sanitarily package the tongues and allowed the man to put them back in his luggage.

“Hunting season is also always interesting,” Hogan said. “You open up a bag and there’s a deer head staring at you.”

HOW TO HANG ON TO YOUR KNIVES AND WOOD STRIPPER AND, UM, RATS

Most items that aren’t allowed in carry-on luggage can travel with you in checked bags (flares, fireworks and explosives in general excluded). Need to bring along your bow and arrows or full-size bottles of shampoo and conditioner? Put them in your checked luggage. Not only will it save you from having to replace these items, it’ll save you a lot of time in the security line.A full list of prohibited items, as well as an explanation of the liquid and gel rules can be found at www.tsa.gov.

TSA officer Mark Hogan holds a bin containing items confiscated from travelers at the Colorado Springs Airport. Photo by Mark Reis, The Gazette