No valuables taken, but petty theft is annoying and (again) shows travelers' vulnerability
Yesterday afternoon, I flew from Houston to Denver. Two bright red TSA-approved locks were on my checked bag’s two biggest zipper compartments when I checked in. When I got home, I saw that the bag sported only one lock.
Is it possible that I didn’t snap one lock completely, and that it opened and fell off in transit? Yes, of course. Is it possible that the small bottle of tequila in a sturdy little cardboard box given to all somehow fell out of the middle of my bag? Unlikely. It could have been either a TSA screener or perhaps a baggage handler, or for all I know, a space alien who likes tequila and used its super powers to find mine.
According to Aero-News, a TSA screener at Newark International reportedly was recently arrested for trying to sell pilfered items on eBay. I’m not saying that my little tequila, given to all convention attendees, will end up in an on-line auction, but I’ll bet it ends up in someone’s drink -- or simply as a straight-from-the-bottle nip for the needy to make a boring job tolerable.
Newsday reported that TSA spokeswoman Lara Uselding had said that 465 TSA officers (0.4 percent of the agency's workers) have been terminated for theft since May 1, 2003. The odds are pretty good that nothing will be swiped from checked bags or from carry-ons during the shoes off/jackets off/laptop out/X-ray/metal detector pre-flight gauntlet passengers endure, but when it happens, it's annoying at best and devastating at worst. When expensive electronics (including laptops and other communication devices with private information) or jewelry is taken, it can be be more than the loss of something as inconsequential as a small bottle of tequila.
Am I going to report it? No. It's not worth the bother. The TSA and/or airline baggage-handling operations seem to be the gift that keeps on taking.
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This has been an ongoing problem for some time. I guess there are always going to be unscrupulous dishonest people in every industry and opportunity certainly presents itself with baggage handling. Fortunately the only thing I've lost in this way was in Peru. Going through customs, dogs sniffed out my bag and customs men rummaged through everything. I had been warned to stand right there and watch if this happened and I did. Somehow I missed it when they pocketed my favorite audio tape at the time--Willie Nelson's all time hits. I had to go the entire vacation just humming to myself-- Rosemary Carstens - http://carstensFEAST.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI knew someone who worked for TSA (not in baggage) and she told horror stories of baggage handleers going through every expensive-looking bag. We should protest that TSA requires that all baggage is accessible to handlers.
ReplyDeleteDO other countries require this also?