What happened when I accidentally swapped bags with someone at the airport.

If you've ever been walking through an airport, you've undoubtedly heard the warning about not picking up or taking bags from others. Well, I did it once, and...it definitely interrupted my plan for the day.

Here's the travel tips I learned from making a big mistake at the airport.

Early morning outfit mishap

It was late summer 2015, and I was headed on vacation with a group of six or so family members. We were on our way to Puerto Rico, and I was very excited. This was my first trip outside the continental U.S.

Our morning started pretty early -- around 4 a.m. -- to catch our 6 a.m. flight from Orlando International Airport to San Juan. When we got to the airport, and into full lighting, my sister made a joke that my best friend (Ashley), and I had "left her out" of our attire for the day.

"Why ya'll ain't tell me we were matching?" My sister asked. Ashley and I hadn't even really looked at each other that morning. Without planning to be, we were in matching outfits: a similar black and white tracksuit. The sets weren't technically the same, but they looked a lot alike.

We even had the same bag. Now, that was intentional...sort of. We were flying a low-cost airline to San Juan that charged for checked bags, so Ashley and I had gone to Walmart earlier that week and happened to see a $20 duffle bag on sale. We both bought it...in the same color.

We were, indeed, twins.

We were, indeed, twins. (This is important.)

Same bag, same destination

When we got inside the airport, it was surprisingly quiet. The lines were moving quickly, and despite it being the window of "last minute" summer travel before schools were back in session, the security line was relatively short.

At some point, our group stopped to make a plan for the morning; looking for what coffee spot was open post-security, finding the gate, logistics. My bag was heavy, so I set it down next to my sister's carry-on suitcase and told her I was running to the restroom.

When I got back, my bag was beside Ashley's identical one. She had set hers down while they were all waiting on me.

"Which one is mine?"

They both shrugged. It didn't matter; were going to the same place and both bags were heavy, so I grabbed one, and off we went to the security area.

'Open your bag'

Somehow, our group was split up. My sister, Ashley and I ended up in one line, with my other loved ones in another. Midway through, one of the TSA agents told my sister to go to a third line, but Ashley and I stayed together. We were pretty far ahead of the rest of the group, and they even opened a lane for us.

"You two can go that way," one of the agents said. I looked back, and there were dozens of people ahead of my sister and even more ahead of the rest of our group.

"We must be in the express lane," I laughed to Ashley.

It was express alright. The next thing I knew, we were going behind a slight partition that sort of looked like a temporary wall.

One of the agents brought out a dog and told us to stand still. The dog walked around each of us twice.

One of the agents brought out a dog and told us to stand still. The dog walked around each of us, twice. Then, another agent wiped our hands down with what looked like a wet wipe.

Must be some new protocol, I thought to myself. Ashley and I were still casually chatting before I realized we were the only people in the lane, and we couldn't see the rest of the room anymore (because of the wall).

Then, one of the agents pulled Ashley farther away from me and began asking her questions. I couldn't hear what she was asking, but I could tell Ashley was becoming flustered. She started to look apologetic and was shaking her head no in an "I'm so sorry, I didn't know" kind of way.

I was about to ask what was going on, but a third agent interrupted me, and asked how we knew each other.

"We're best friends," I answered.

Then, in rapid-fire style, the agent rattled off several more questions at me. Where was I going? How long would I be there? Where did I live? Why was I flying from Orlando? Why was the trip only 3 days? Why didn't I have a checked bag?

I was partially confused and partially petrified.

"Open your bag," the agent told me. When I unzipped it, I realized I had Ashley's bag.

As if the agent already knew this fact, he asked, "Whose bag is this?"

"Whose bag is this?" It felt like a trap, like a trick question.

It felt like a trap, like a trick question. I knew I had nothing to hide and had done nothing wrong, but for some reason, I was thinking...I'm going to prison for the rest of my life.

I explained that we accidentally swapped bags earlier. The agent didn't say a word. He just looking through the contents of the bag, zipped it up and handed it back to me.

Then, all three agents acted.., totally normally.

"Okay, have a good trip," one told us and motioned for us to walk away.

When we finally go to the gate and rejoined my family. I made a comment about how strict MCO's security was.

"All that wiping hands and answering questions was a lot," I joked, assuming they had been through the same rigorous protocol as we had. My family told us that they had all been at the gate for more than 30 minutes and hadn't undergone any of the security measures we did: no dogs, no hand wiping, no bag search, no questions.

"So what just happened," I said.

After a few minutes, one of my family members -- who has a...colorful...past -- looked between Ashley and I for a minute, then started laughing and said, "they thought ya'll were some traffickers. Especially with the matching duffles. Yeah, actually, ya'll do look suspicious."

"Yeah, actually...ya'll do look suspicious" ..."and the gunpowder probably didn't help."

Then Ashley added, "and the gunpowder probably didn't help."

Gunpowder?! Girl, what?

She revealed that she had gone to the gun range the evening before, and they found traces of gunpowder residue on her hands; that's the tense conversation she was having with the agent that I couldn't hear.

My family laughed all the way to San Juan about that one.

Now, I can't prove this, but I'm pretty sure I was on some unofficial "watch her" list. Because after this incident, I was almost always pulled for "random" checks at the airport, even internationally. It could be totally unrelated, but I've gone through extra security checks in St. Lucia, Ireland, the U.K. and even Canada, plus countless times here in the U.S. until about a year ago.

Long story short: don't play with TSA.

Keep your bag to yourself, don't have gunpowder residue on your hands and don't be anyone's twin during travel.

Maddy 💛