I went to the local SSA office today to drop off paperwork and had my physical property searched and was also told my pocket knife needed to be returned to my vehicle. Since when are they allowed to search your property. I also noticed the security guard searching womens purses. WTF is going on?

Anyone else have a similiar experience in .Gov buildings? Other than a courthouse.

That's pretty much ANY Fed office these days. I leave my Kershaw assisted-opener behind when I know I'm going to be visiting the Feds in the course of my job duties.

ETA: Maybe they don't want you taking the whole operation over with your SAK and making them look bad by doing it better/faster?

Been going on for many years at many federal buildings. Security has been tighter since that asswipe blew up the federal building.

I've had meetings with FAA and its the same there:  property search, metal detector, and current ID for the temporary pass.

Years ago I picked up a couple of ceramic bladed titanium handled knives from Cabelas (catalogue). I now carry them anywhere I go that has detectors, they don't trip them so long as I wear them well enough to escape detection through other means

I have recently gotten married. Due to this fact, the wife and I went down to the local SS office to get the name change taken care of. Lets just say that I would have LIKED to have seen the people in there get searched. Half would have probably gotten reported for drugs. Some of the great stories I heard while waiting 1+ hours to just be seen by someone:

A lady sitting there talking to another lady. She had 3 kids(two girls and a boy). She declared, "I HATE my KIDS. Worse thing to ever happen to me. And this little $hit (points to the child in the baby carriage) will be the death of me. He's the worst of them all. I wish he'd died in childbirth."

Another lady decided to tell the other lady to her left how she had gotten crabs from the local laundry and she "just knew it wasn't from her man, cause he hadn't cheated in the past 3 months!" And she knew for sure because her friend worked at the strip club that he goes to and would tell her if he was!"

It was like a clogged toilet...the $hit was hanging around and just wouldn't leave. I would have paid $100 to get out of there just 10 minutes faster. I also decided to stand due to the second person's story! NOT a good time!

That is the standard operating procedure at all federal office buildings that I go to (and I go to a lot of them).  Some of the state government offices I've been to have mags and seartch bags too.  I would expect it and leave the knife in the car.

Edited to answer the when question:  Around September 12, 2001


CWO

Quoted: I have recently gotten married. Due to this fact, the wife and I went down to the local SS office to get the name change taken care of. Lets just say that I would have LIKED to have seen the people in there get searched. Half would have probably gotten reported for drugs. Some of the great stories I heard while waiting 1+ hours to just be seen by someone: A lady sitting there talking to another lady. She had 3 kids(two girls and a boy). She declared, "I HATE my KIDS. Worse thing to ever happen to me. And this little $hit (points to the child in the baby carriage) will be the death of me. He's the worst of them all. I wish he'd died in childbirth." Another lady decided to tell the other lady to her left how she had gotten crabs from the local laundry and she "just knew it wasn't from her man, cause he hadn't cheated in the past 3 months!" And she knew for sure because her friend worked at the strip club that he goes to and would tell her if he wa It was like a clogged toilet...the $hit was hanging around and just wouldn't leave. I would have paid $100 to get out of there just 10 minutes faster. I also decided to stand due to the second person's story! NOT a good time!

This does not surprise me. The gene pool needs shocked!

I have yet to figure out the ID requirement. The marshals at the federal courthouse told me there's no watch list, so I guess it's just intended to habituate folks to showing their papers on demand.

Not suprising.  Have you seen some of the folks who hang out at these offices?  As a matter of fact, when I was a JBT, we used the social security office to set people with warrants up all the time!!  They always fell for it.  "Hello-you have a check at your local social security office. . . . . ." Always looking for a handout from uncle sam.

Since a group of elderly American men and women hijacked several airplanes and crashed them into...


Oh, wait, no, that wasn't it...  Hmm...

It's been that way literally since 9/2001. In fact, it's generally not as bad as it was for the first year or so.  You should try entering a place like Ft Meade or Goddard Space Flight Center!!  

Depending on what city you're in, that's been going on since the 1970s.

If you're in smaller cities, there are still offices that do not search personal property.

What kind of claimant are you?

Well, I'll only answer that question because I have nothing to hide/fear or be ashamed about. I have applied for retirement benefits. I am claiming 100% disability from an overseas work accident.