Airport Security Finds Someone Unexpected Hiding In Passenger's Luggage

They weren't prepared for that.

Security staff working the TSA line at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York were given quite a shock last week after discovering some unusual content inside a passenger’s checked baggage.

Screeners noticed an odd, cat-shaped object on the X-ray machine.

Turns out, it was cat-shaped for a reason.

Twitter/TSA

Upon closer inspection, more signs began to point toward the surprising truth.

There really was a cat in the bag.

Twitter/TSA

Fortunately, the cat was alive and well, curled up within the hard-shelled case. But the incident certainly raised some questions — like, how did the cat come to be there in the first place?

The owner of the bag was brought in for questioning.

Twitter/TSA

Evidently, it was all just a big mistake. A mistake of the cat’s own doing.

“This happened on my airline and I was there. The poor guy did NOT do this on purpose,” a source familiar with the case wrote on Twitter. “He was visiting a friend and his friendly cat jumped into his luggage but he had NO idea it happened.”

The source later tweeted that the stowaway cat was "unfazed":

Fortunately, the cat had been found in time, avoiding what would have been a long and unpleasant journey within the luggage hold of an airplane.

Instead, he's back where he belongs — as a TSA spokesperson reports:

"The cat’s out of the bag and safely back home."

And just in time for Thanksgiving.

Given this happy ending, the sneaky cat has plenty to be thankful for.