Bomb in a briefcase is a common movie trope, since most people's working knowledge of explosives and bombs comes from movies it's reasonable to assume that an o

Bomb in a briefcase is a common movie trope, since most people's working knowledge of explosives and bombs comes from movies it's reasonable to assume that an older style clock in a metal briefcase like they do in movies would be interpreted by a few people as a bomb, especially those in positions of authority who view everything that isn't 'normal' as a problem. Obviously Ahmed was aware enough of this to try to make the briefcase look less suspicious by wrapping it in wires which is generally how I try to make electronics in a brief case less suspicious. A few years ago in the winter I had an issue with the electronics in my car so coming home from Reno, I pulled the climate control panel out of my car so I could manually connect the wires to make the heat go. I ended up going across the border like this, and ended up explaining to the border guard the wiring of the car to assure her that nothing was amiss. The border guards suspicions were naturally raised because most people don't even know how to pull the panel out let alone jerry rig their own climate control system.