A similar incident happened when my inlaws flew out to visit us. My FIL''s electric toothbrush got jammed in the ON position in his locked suitcase. There was a minor disturbance during check-in process!
When I was getting my passport the man in front of me had his bag searched... the guard DON''T ASK ME WHY! motioned to me to look in the bag to see the "suspicious item" in the bag.
Ummm hellllooooo I think that was on a "need to know" basis and I sure didn''t need to know!