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Wayne Coyne brings grenade to OKC airport. TSA shuts down airport. People miss flights and lose money.

1:17 PM EST on November 19, 2012

On Saturday, November 10th, recently single Wayne Coyne flew to Los Angeles to catch some previews of the new musical "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots." The show is based upon the decade-old Lips' album of the same name, or as most people call it, the one that has the "Do You Realize Song" on it.

Before he left town, though, Wayne Coyne did something that only Wayne Coyne could do. He "inadvertently" tried to sneak a grenade through a TSA checkpoint. Here's a tweet he sent about the fiasco:

When I first saw that tweet, I took it with a grain of salt. I know Wayne Coyne is a goofy weirdo who enjoys publicity about as much as he does sex, drugs and rock n' roll, but he couldn't be that stupid, right? Since our "legitimate" media didn't cover the story — and the fact that I was sick and didn't feel like investigating the thing — I just chalked it up to Wayne making something out of nothing and forgot about it.

Oops! Apparently I was wrong. Wayne Coyne really is that stupid and really did bring a grenade — or something that closely resembled one — to Will Rogers, which led to the TSA shutting down the concourse area of the airport. This resulted in a lot people missing flights, and in the case of this Ogle Mole, having to shell out $1,000 for new plane tickets.

Everything is [sic], although a few things are edited for clarity.

Mole: This weekend (November 10th) I was flying out to Vegas. Wayne Coyne's (fake?) grenade caused TSA to lockdown the airport. I was stuck near the food court, wasn't able to cross the airport to get to my gate. Flight left without me, all because of Wayne Coyne. Frontier didn't have another flight available to Vegas unto Monday, I got back Tuesday. Only option was to shell out $500 bucks for 2 literally last minute tickets on Southwest. I think Wayne Coyne should reimburse me, at a minimum I want to drop acid with him and Yoko Ono. Can you help me out to let Wayne know that his music is fucking weird and I could use that $1000 ASAP. Thanks

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Me: Are you being totally serious?! Do you have any pics or anything you can share?

Mole: I'm 100% serious. Wish I wasn't, had to spend an extra grand on tickets. Here is a shot I got at the airport.  You can see how they quarantined the entire airport. Made me miss my flight

[Editor's Note: Pics are below]

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Me: Would they not let people board flights? Do you have any estimation as to how many other people were screwed over?

Mole: There were at least 4 other people on my flight that were left behind. My buddy was also going to Vegas on a united flight connecting in Denver at the same time. He was literally the only person on the plane. Not sure if everyone else was left behind or they just didn't sell any seats.

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Me: Did they call your name? The flight really just took off and left you?

I got to the airport about two hours before my flight.  sitting in the restaurant area on the other side airport for my gate was. Security thing that intersects the airport was quarantined off by TSA agents on both sides. We were not allowed through , we heard our name over the intercom calling us to the gate to say the plane is about to board the TSA agent assured us that we had nothing to worry about the plane will leave not leave without us. We ended  up getting to our gate and out plane left without us.

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Me: What was Wayne Coyne doing when all this went down? Was he taking pictures of his open sores or dead birds? Was he walking around in his giant bubble?

Mole: All we could see was Wayne  standing by the security checkpoint with a bunch of agents around his bag.

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Me: How did you lose out on $1,000?Why not just wait for another flight?

Mole: The people at frontier said they had no more flights to Vegas until Monday. That wouldn't  work so our last resort was to go to a Southwest gate where our fight was leaving in about 10 minutes. They wanted 500 bucks for the tickets. Have to buy two tickets last minute all because of Wayne.

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Here are a couple of photos that the Mole sent me.

Wayne Coyne standing at the TSA:

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Airport security blocking off the concourse:

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Wow. Sucks for that guy! If Wayne Coyne is truly "sorry sorry sorry" for what he did, he'll try to contact the people he "inconvenienced" and either reimburse them for new tickets and/or lost time, or as the reader suggested, trip acid with them and Yoko Ono. Thanks to sold out concerts tours, merchandising and Dell commercials, Wayne Coyne bleeds money. He can afford to do it.

Anyway, this whole fiasco brings me back to one question I've asked on this site a few times over the past year. What the hell is going on with Wayne Coyne?! He used to be a quirky little weirdo that everyone enjoyed. Hell, I had a man crush on him. Now I can barely stand him.

He used to be obsessed with robots and Martians and would say things like "Fuck" over the loudspeakers at city events. And best of all, he seemed authentic and genuine while doing it.

Maybe the Twitter age is partly to blame, but now it feels like there's a staged and contrived element to everything Wayne Coyne does. His shtick has gotten old. Instead of seeing a creative genius at work, I feel like I'm watching an egotistical old man who's obsessed with vaginas, open sores and bringing grenades to airports. Sure, he's still a great ambassador for our city and proof to the world that not all Oklahomans are right wing religious zealots, but I want the old Wayne Coyne back. Maybe someone can help Wayne find him.

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