A 60-year-old Greeley man has been arrested for using a pair of nail clippers to “menace” security guards at a courthouse metal detector checkpoint.
The guy was arrested and jailed on suspicion of felony menacing after the Monday morning incident outside the Weld County commissioner's meeting at a Greeley courthouse.

The nail clipper arrest could become an example of zero-tolerance security in post-9/11 America.

Becker was carrying a pocket knife that triggered the metal detector he passed through in hopes of attending the commissioner's meeting.

"The security guards told him to take the pocket knife back to his car, which he did," said Weld County Undersheriff Margie Martinez.

But Becker was upset as he returned to the checkpoint, she said.

"He took the clippers out of his pocket, flipped out the little file on the end of it and said, 'This could do as much damage as a knife,'" Martinez said.

"Because the security staffed felt threatened that qualifies and fits into the parameter of the statute of the menacing," Martinez added.

The guards called a deputy and Becker was arrested, she said. He was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday afternoon to be advised of the charges against him.

Could the security guards have overreacted to the irritated man's explanation that they missed a nail clipper that was as potentially lethal as a pocket knife?

"He was upset, but it wasn't probably as big a deal," Martinez said. But, she added, the security guards feeling threatened qualifies as a menacing act under the law.

Ultimately, the district attorney will decide if the nail clipper incident warrants formal charges, Martinez said.