‘Vampire straw’ weapon confiscated at Logan Airport in Boston; passenger arrested

TSA officials found it ‘artfully concealed’ among titanium chopsticks in a Chicago man’s backpack

This "vampire straw" was confiscated from a passenger at Logan Airport on Sunday.Transportation Security Administration

A man was arrested after authorities found a weapon known as a “vampire straw” in his carry-on bag at Logan International Airport on Sunday, officials said.

The passenger, Arman Achuthan Nair, 26, of Chicago, had the straw inside a pouch in his backpack where it was “artfully concealed among titanium chopsticks,” according to Daniel Velez, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

This is a Vampire straw. These items are not allowed in passenger carry-on bags. A passenger found that out yesterday @BostonLogan when @MassStatePolice confiscated the item and eventually arrested the 26-year-old man on a state charge. 🧛🏼‍♂️🥤🚫 #travelfail pic.twitter.com/8TGQYP93c7

— TSA_NewEngland (@TSA_NewEngland) April 24, 2023

At 5:38 p.m. State Police went to Terminal B near Gate 24 after TSA inspectors found the titanium straw, officials said.

State Police confiscated the straw, which was about 10 inches long and had a chiseled tip. Achuthan Nair was taken into custody on a charge of carrying a dangerous weapon, according to Dave Procopio, a spokesman for the State Police.

His arraignment is scheduled for May 30 in the East Boston division of Boston Municipal Court, according to the Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office.

Achuthan Nair said he brought the vampire straw from Szabo Inc., a company that sells knives and other edged instruments and weapons, officials said.

Szabo Inc. advertises the product as a drinking straw that can be used as both a weapon of self-defense and “a very effective tire deflator.”

According to the company’s website, the vampire straw is “long enough to be used like a dagger” and its chiseled tip is “sharp enough to puncture most synthetic materials.”

It “can be carried in a cup, in public without attracting attention,” the website states. “From a cup, the Vampire straw is very easy to deploy in reverse grip, and put into action almost instantly. This is one weapon you will actually use every day.”

The straws are made in New Mexico and sell for $85 each, according to the website.

“In 100,000 years, when every trace of humanity will have disappeared,” the website states, “the Vampire straw will remain, unaffected by corrosion, as a testament of the ingenuity human beings possessed to invent contraptions to hurt each other.”