> Why the fuck a low level agent at a counter would even care about this is beyond me.
You've never met a peon on a power trip? Have you never interacted with American police?
My best guess here is promotion material or some sort of internal campaign with an associated bonus for nabbing policy violators.
maybe they are incentivized via extra money to detect this? or more probable is a simple power trip/revenge by someone that gets yelled at a lot by angry passengers.
Not in the article but it’s a reasonable guess that the computer had flagged the reservation in some way and there was an alert or note on check in.
Lead paint and lead in gasoline is a helluva drug, thats why.