My cynical take on this is that the most likely scenario is that the stasi are getting brownie points on the amount of booty they steal. And, I suspect they're allowed to keep some (or all) of it.
If they don't like the your laptop computer (i.e., battery isn't charged), or don't like the looks of your camera, they take it, and you can't have it back.
Does anyone with two synapses really believe that a $3 thousand dollar laptop computer -- with a dead battery -- will actually go into the dumpster?
I don't. I think it will go home with someone -- and I suspect that the "someone" will quite likely be the stasi that decides to confiscate it.
The only way I will get on an airplane is in a box, if my survivors decide to ship my corpse back to my place of birth to bury it. And since I cannot fathom that occurring, I think it safe to assume that I will never again set foot on an airplane.
Given the uber-rude treatment I endured prior to 9/11 -- and the hair-raising "thrills", such as hearing the pilot say that he thinks he can land the damn thing, after flying in circles for an hour, trying to unjam a stuck slat -- it's no great loss. BTW, he didn't bother mentioning the problem until after the hour or so spent circling (which happened right after he announced that we'd be landing in ten minutes), and even at that, it was obvious that he was lying through his teeth. When the problem first manifested itself (when he announced we'd be landing in ten minutes), the plane went into a sudden, fairly steep bank, which it remained at for the duration of the time until he announced that he thought he could land it. During that time, I heard lots of whirr-whirr, like they were trying to get something working. I thought it was stuck landing gear, but I was wrong.
Why do I say he was lying? Because it was obvious that he couldn't get the slat unstuck. Instead, he retracted the other slat. How do I know that? Because he landed the damn thing at breakneck speed. It flew onto the runway at such an incredible speed that it didn't visibly slow down until about 3/4 the length of the runway. He hit the reverse thrusters the instant the wheels touched the runway, and kept them roaring until the very end of the runway. I looked out the window and watched things on the ground go whizzing by at an incredible clip. When the thing finally slowed down, and he turned left, I saw two rows of firetrucks with lights flashing. The liar then came on the PA again and said don't let that worry you, we told them we didn't need them, but they were having an exercise anyway. Right, and I'm the Queen of England.
That was one of my "adventures". Another time I was on a plane that couldn't get the wheels locked, and was trying to decide whether or not to ditch on a frozen Lake Erie. Did they mention that to the passengers? Nope. My mother told me, after hearing about it on the news. Another time, while climbing after taking off from Newark, while at maybe a thousand feet altitude, the plane made a violent 90 degree bank left, and stayed there for about 30 seconds. I looked across the aisle and saw the ground out the left window, and watched the other passengers turn white. I wondered if the thing would straighten out before it hit the ground (nothing holding it up at a full bank). Again, no comment from the luftfuhrer. My guess is that they were trying to avoid a midair collision. One other time, coming in to land at Denver, I look out the window, and what do I see a few hundred yards to the right? Another plane, coming in to land on the same runway. Oops.
Well, I've made up my mind. Screw 'em. I can't think of anything I'd want to take with me that I'd really want to risk having the vermin steal, so I'll drive. If it's too far to drive, I'll take the railroad. And if the railroad doens't go there, then I guess I don't really need to go there either. Travel is overrated anyway.