Five security agents investigate 'threat'

"This is so ridiculous," the angry star told the ENQUIRER in an exclusive interview.

"It was like a little Swiss Army Knife. I know a lot of people carry things like this, but I never did. It wasn't mine!"

The 81-year-old Emmy Winner was flying from Boston to Provincetown, Mass., for a performance when the bizarre incident unfolded August 20.

METAL DETECTOR

"She must have forgotten that it was attached to her keys. Bea, always the comedienne, started screaming: "The terrorists put it there! The terrorists put it there!"

"Most of us knew it was a simple pocketknife, but we were laughing at her schtick. But to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials--who are on high alert since September 11--this was no laughing matter.

"Before we knew it, five TSA agents had shown up to investigate the 'threat.' They didn't even know who she was. Bea, in her typical sarcastic manner, told them 'We're all doomed!'

"She was totally in 'Dorothy' mode," said Haynes, referring to Bea's much-loved "Golden Girls" character, Dorothy Zbornak.

Bea, who's touring with her celebrated one-woman show, has a remarkably different recollection of events.

"Billy (Goldenberg, her longtime accompianist) and I were going to Provincetown to do our show," she told The ENQUIRER. "I was flying from Los Angeles, and had to change planes at Logan Airport in Boston to take the connecting flight to Cape Cod.

POCKETKNIFE

"I told them I knew nothing about the knife or how it got into my purse.

"So they said, "O.K., go ahead.'

"Then I started to get angry because I thought, how did this thing end up in my bag? Shouldn't these security people be more concerned?

"I said, 'You know, with all the terrorist threats, shouldn't you people be more worried about something like this?'

"I never said, 'The terrorists put it there.' However, I may have said 'If the terrorists can do something like that, then we're all doomed.' But I was angry and concernedand I expressed that to the airline and the security people."