Look, when grandma hands you a special mystery gift, and tells you not to open it until you get home, you do what grandma says. Consequences be damned.
That was certainly the case for Los Angeles-based actor Brett Gaffney. Only his obedience made for some awkward moments at airport security.
In a viral TikTok video, Gaffney is seen at the airport, a large briefcase nestled beside him, as he explains how his Grandma had accidentally been trying to get him “arrested” with her surprise gift. Turns out, this gift had more than one surprise to bestow.
“I got stopped at the airport security, and you know what? It was because of this briefcase my grandma gave me as an early Christmas gift, and she said don’t open it until you get to California,” Gaffney recalls, noting that the briefcase was suspiciously heavy.
Despite him urging his grandma that he needed to know what was inside, Gaffney was still instructed to wait to open it. This didn’t fly with the TSA, unfortunately.
“They asked me what was inside, and I said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know…it’s a surprise‘” Gaffney says in the clip. “They said, ‘What do you mean? You’re bringing a briefcase, and you don’t know what’s inside?’”
As one person playfully pointed out in the comments, “I feel like the words ‘I don’t know, it’s a surprise’ shouldn’t be uttered to TSA, let alone in one sitting 🤣.”
Eventually security did open the briefcase once it was flagged on the x ray conveyor belt, revealing the gift to a be: a vintage typewriter.
“Who am I, Tom Hanks?” Gaffney quips, making a nod to Hanks’ famous affinity for using typewriters. “Am I going to go to the park and write a whole book with a typewriter?”
Perhaps even funnier than Gaffney’s situation is that fact that it was the second typewriter airport security ahad seen that day, according to his caption.
Though it temporarily got him in some hot water, people loved Gaffney for trying to respect his grandma’s wishes.
“The fact u listened and didn’t open it is so innocent lmao,” one person wrote, to which Gaffney replied, “I’m a man of pure trust.”
Others chimed in about the gift itself. One person wrote, “there is a Great American novel to be written and now you have the tools.”
Another added, “as a fellow typewriter gifted grandson, I knew what it was the second I saw it. Yours looks much newer than mine.”
@brett.gaffney Airport Security said this is the second one they have seen today! #brettgaffneyforever #holidaytravel ♬ original sound – brett.gaffney
In some follow-up videos, Gafney shows viewers how he has indeed warmed up to his old school machine, which he admitted to being “so calming”. He even shared that it inspired the same feelings as the toys from his childhood that made him “play hooky” from school.
Or maybe instead of taking him back to adolescence, the gift has catapulted him into his golden years, as he jokes, “I’m becoming an old man…all I want to do is stay home and type on my typewriter.”
So there you have it—grandma gave a gift that keeps on giving.