Posted on 12/17/2004 9:18:58 AM PST by yatros from flatwater
The travel season is here, but, do you feel safe sending your luggage through the airport? The surveillance video is disturbing. A TSA worker at JFK airport in New York, allegedly rifling through a bag planted by police, removing jewels and money. This suspect was charged with larceny and possession of stolen property. Theft has been a problem for as long as travelers have been checking their bags, but now, the TSA is keeping track. Since taking control of baggage screening nearly two years ago, it's received more than 28,000 complaints of damaged, lost or stolen items. The total value: nearly $36 million. But no one knows how many of those are false claims. Air traveler Randy Rutland says, "Everything was in the luggage when we left from here." Rutland, of Louisiana, claims it happened to him while flying out of New Orleans. He says his luggage was checked, then secured with blue tags to indicate they'd been hand searched by the TSA, but when he got his bags, a brand new digital camera and his daughter's compact discs were missing. "I think somebody went through our bags, saw a nice camera and some cd's and they took 'em," Rutland says. The value: $1600. So far, the TSA has settled some 19,000 claims totaling $2.5 million, including $152,000 worth of claims at LAX, $111,000 dollars at JFK, followed by Seattle, Las Vegas and Oakland. The TSA is now adding surveillance cameras in baggage handling and secure areas to watch for theft. TSA Administrator, Admiral David Stone, says, "In issues of theft, there's a zero-tolerance and we need to make sure that we route that out of our organization because it gets to the very core of who we are and that trust and confidence bond with the American people." Only 66 TSA workers have been arrested out of 60,000 present and past TSA screeners, and for every TSA employee who handles a bag, it's touched by four airline employees. Still, the TSA itself warns travelers to pack valuables, like jewelry and money in carry-on bags.
They need to put cameras in every boardroom in America if they want to catch the big fish like Ken Lay who steal millions and millions of dollars.
They no longer allow your travel bags to have locks, so at any time employees can rifle through the bag if they want to.
"So then how do you deal with valuables that are restricted from being carried on the plane ? Like a nice zippo
"
You can carry your Zippo on the plane. I carry a Bic with me on the plane. Nobody's ever even looked at it.
You might as well fine General Motors for every theft at the airport. It makes as much sense.
In my world there is no such thing as "checked baggage". If I can't carry it on the plane with me, I don't take it.
Effective sometime next January, that will no longer be the case. No lighters on commercial flights.
I'm with you! We've flown many times since 9/11, including two trips to Europe, and never had a problem. Nothing has been stolen and we travel light (one small bag each for a 10-day trip to Europe, for example, and nothing more valuable than a camera).
"Effective sometime next January, that will no longer be the case. No lighters on commercial flights."
You're right. I just checked. But it looks like it's just butane lighters. The Zippo should be all right. Hmm...I guess I'll just buy a new Bic when I get there and when I get back.
yes i have a and i know its not an answer to the question asked.
Cmon people, you really think those little, tiny locks on bags are going to stop a determined thief???
Geez most bags are made out of cloth that could be sliced open in seconds with a sharp knife, locked or not!
At least you can watch the TSA search your bag but what happens to it after it goes out of sight down the belt?
Do you think groups of more than two Arab men should be exempted from security checks? Norm Mineta thinks so. The current policy is that if more than two young Arab males are sent to secondary questioning that's considered racial profiling.
From '69 to '74 I was an aircraft loader at JFK. You're right but containerized luggage eliminated much of the risk. If you're late checking in then your baggage goes on loose and not in a container.
Yes, yes and yes.
Would your definition of stealing include taking possesion of another's property by threat of violence or through fraud?
Really? It doesn't make much sense to ban one kind of lighter and not all of them (if it makes sense to ban them in the first place).
I would say that the utility of screening procedures in any setting is totally dependent upon their statistical predictive value, would you agree?
Our family has flown about a dozen times since 9/11.......we never lock our luggage. Always check our bags, and have never had anything taken. Only once did we find a note that our luggage had been opened for inspection.
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