Man arrested at Tulsa International Airport talks about his ordeal

An exclusive interview with one of the men arrested at the Tulsa International Airport for carrying a weapon. <br/><br/>News on 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright says sheâ€™s learned there is more to the

Monday, October 24th 2005, 12:20 pm

By: News On 6

An exclusive interview with one of the men arrested at the Tulsa International Airport for carrying a weapon.

News on 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright says sheâ€™s learned there is more to the story of Dannie Saint and Greg Ward.

The two men had never met until they were handcuffed to a bench together. Both families say their arrests were completely out of line.

Dannie and Carol Saint live in Pryor; they're hard-working family people who can't believe this situation. They were eating Sunday dinner with their kids when Dannie's work called and said he needed to catch a flight in 4 hours to California. "Grabbed a couple of suitcases, packed my clothes, my hardhat, rushed around and took off to the airport.â€

Dannie says he was going to check both suitcases, but at the last minute, decided to carry one on the plane. It happened to be on the one with his two-and-a-half inch pocket knife in it, which screeners spotted. "I said, you can have it, I don't want it and he said you can mail it to yourself and I said don't mail it, I need to get on the plane."

Because the knife is spring-operated, Dannie was arrested and taken through the crowd in cuffs to a bench where he met another man, Greg Ward, who had an antique, black powder gun in his carry-on bag. Dannie Saint: "Firing pin wasn't in it, a tie wrap around the trigger and hammer, it couldn't fire, there was no ammo, he'd bought it at the Tulsa gun show."

Both men were taken to jail, strip-searched, fingerprinted, photographed and Dannie says, treated like dangerous felons. Plus, their arrest was on TV. "They've been calling all morning, it was on TV, it's embarrassing, very embarrassing, the way they did it was stupid." Dannie wants the misdemeanor charge dropped and wants an apology from the city. He freely admits his mistake, but says airport security didn't use any common sense and overstepped their authority.

The other man, Greg Ward, told the News on 6, he's gotten an attorney and didn't want to comment.

The Tulsa International Airport says it has a zero tolerance policy and anyone with an illegal item, will go to jail, whether the knife is small or the gun is an antique. They say the rules are well known since September 11th and everyone is treated the same.