Hello all, first post here.

I just wanted to share my experience today at the Amsterdam airport. I always make sure to not have anything metal on me when travelling in order to speed the process of the security check as much as possible, and this time was no exception. They have a body scanner in AMS instead of just metal detectors, and it detected something in my right pocket and both ankles. A security person came to search me. After a thorough search he told me to wait, and another security guy, who looked more senior came to perform a second search. After the insulting, in my opinion, question "May I search you, sir" (given that I don't really have a choice). He searched me and asked: "What happened to your jeans?" and I answered, naturally, "Nothing, it's just a heavy pair of jeans" and I showed him the patch. He asked me if I wear something other than underpants beneath it, then asked me all sorts of questions, from where did I get them, how much they cost why did I want so heavy jeans, what is the actual weight, where I was from, what I was doing in Amsterdam and if I had the hotel reservation papers with me. All these didn't convince him, obviously, since he took me behind a curtain and asked me to take it off. I told him this is humiliating but I couldn't really do something so I unbuttonned my fly. He inspected the fly a bit more and fortunately didn't ask me to remove the pants completely. "I work here eleven years, I haven't seen fabric like this" he said and finally gave up. He pulled the curtain away and gave me the OK to pass "Your bags are over there".

"Do you understand why we searched you?" he asked a few moments later. I was frustrated beyond words by that time and I responded affirmatively so that the incident would end as soon as possible, but he insisted. "It is important to understand why we searched you". "Yes" I replied again, thinking George Orwell would be amused.