Man without fingerprints detained at airport

[steven johnson]

You can't be too careful about militant cancer survivors.

Ian Sample
The Guardian, Wednesday 27 May 2009


US immigration officials detained a man at an airport for four hours after customs checks revealed he had no fingerprints. The 62-year-old man, identified only as Mr S, is thought to have lost his fingerprints as a result of a rare side-effect of capecitabine, a common anti-cancer drug. Mr S, who had been taking the drug for more than three years, was unaware that his fingerprints had vanished. He was released after customs officials interviewed him. The incident happened last year but only came to light after his doctor published a report on the case in the journal Annals of Oncology yesterday.

Man without fingerprints detained at airport

[donco6]

1. Do they detain people with no hands, too?

This seems odd.

[CJCRANE]

2. So he's the guy who committed all the unsolved burglaries

where no fingerprints were found!

[jcarterhero]

4. Haha, good one

[JuniperLea]

3. That's not so bad...

There are many cases of criminals burning their fingertips with acid to remove the prints. It's rare that prints go away on their own, so I think it's within reason that there were suspicions.

All you DUers sans prints need to get a note from your doctor before traveling... ;)