Electrician's Tool Bag Exceeds Checked Luggage Weight Limit, Airline Offers Cargo Freight

A traveling journeyman electrician was escorted to the airline's cargo desk at O'Hare International Airport on Monday after his tool bag shattered the checked luggage scale and prompted a gate agent to ask if he was 'relocating a substation.' Richard 'Sparky' Conduit, 53, was attempting to fly to a job site in Phoenix when the check-in kiosk registered his bag at 94 pounds, nearly double the airline's 50-pound limit. 'I only brought the essentials,' Conduit said, gesturing at a bag that required its own luggage cart. 'Two sets of linesman pliers, three multimeters because you never know, the good Klein screwdriver set, the backup Klein screwdriver set, my voltage tester, my backup voltage tester, my backup backup voltage tester, and a fish tape I've had since 1997.' When asked why he needed three multimeters, Conduit stared at the gate agent for eleven seconds before quietly saying, 'You wouldn't understand.' The airline offered to ship the bag via cargo freight for $340. Conduit countered by attempting to wear several of the tools in his pockets, which triggered a secondary screening and a 45-minute conversation with TSA about why a man needed four wire strippers on his person. Conduit ultimately paid the freight charge, noting that the tools were worth 'more than the plane.' He boarded with a single Klein 11-in-1 in his shirt pocket, which he described as 'traveling light.'