Exactly my thoughts. Why aren't they held responsible? What makes government employees special? The suggestion has been made that instead of checking your baggage you instead ship it via Fed-ex. If Fed-ex can get things to point a from point b why can't the airlines? I had never had anything stolen before and my laptop was indeed stolen by someone who had the opportunity to open the bag after it was checked. What I couldn't believe is that they had no better system to deal with stolen or "missing items" than to give you a number to the "lost and found". I had half a mind to ask for the "pinched and stolen" department. Many ask why would you ever check anything of value? My laptop was huge and heavy not something easily taken or easy to sneak out and I'd never had any problems before. Plus you'd think with all the damn security it'd be almost impossible for a worker to smuggle anything in or out of a secure area. My baggage had been delayed before but nothing ever was missing or broken. I flew a lot before 9-11 and nothing like this happenned. What I found out when I researched this is that this is a big problem. The TSA screener said they get huge call volume .
Hell yeah, as soon as anything like a laptop comes up missing make all the Security personnel go into a little room, strip them to their skivvies and let passengers pelt them with hostile questions and threats for 4 hours.