By MARTIN J. MOYLAN

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Jon Zetterlund of Stillwater, Minn., made a not-all-that-uncommon mistake when passing through an airport security checkpoint. But he's getting hit with a hefty fine, a fine that he initially assumed to be phony.

On a trip back to the Twin Cities from Birmingham, Ala., last Sept. 14, Zetterlund forgot he had a Swiss Army knife in his shaving kit. That was the shaving kit he jammed in his carry-on when he had to hastily unload an overweight checked bag.

At the security checkpoint, a screener found the knife. Zetterlund said he readily surrendered it, along with a pair of nail scissors.

"I told them I had screwed up, said that was sorry and I wanted to get under way as soon as possible, and that they could dispose of my scissors and Swiss Army knife any way they saw fit," said Zetterlund, a network administrator for GreenTree Servicing, a financial services firm in St. Paul.

He thought that was the end of it. But several weeks later he got a letter demanding he pay a $250 fine to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.

Common carry-on mistakes cost travelers, continued