A friend of mine recently flew across the country. In her checked luggage, she had placed a set of earrings. These were not fancy jeweled things, but just complicated earrings of the sort called “talons”.
When she got to the end of her journey, there was a little slip of paper in her luggage that informed her that the TSA found it necessary to confiscate an item in her luggage - no description, no reasons, nothing. The only item missing from her luggage was this set of earrings.
Does someone in her situation have ANY recourse? I can hear you say “screw this, those earrings maybe cost $60”. OK, fine. However, if she has no recourse, does this mean that a TSA employee looking through luggage has the freedom to help him/herself to a $3000 set of diamond earrings, without any reason other than that they wanted them, and no recourse for the passenger?
TSA Claims Management Office. Unless you can prove the earrings were packed, and removed by TSA, my WAG is you are SOL. I don’t trust TSA one bit. Every time I fly my checked baggage contains the following 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper with this laser-printed in very large type:
All items in this bag have been photographed and inventoried. You will be held responsible for anything missing from this bag.
My last trip in November TSA inspected my bags are failed to relock the TSA locks. One lock was missing completely and the other had its hasp bent so that it would not lock. (nothing was missing.) And yes, I inventory everything in every checked bag and do photograph everything. When dealing with any government agency for any reason, document, document, document.
Not for nothing, but that kind of bold sign will produce exactly one type of response from a government employee.
" THIS is the bag we get to really screw with today. The nerve !!! "
Sad but true. You dare someone in a position of ultimate power to use it, and they will. Is there a compelling reason why your friend would not place jewelry in a carry-on purse or bag?
I suppose there is not, and I will be aware of this for flying in the future, but my basic question was - do TSA luggage screeners essentially have a blank check to steal anything from your bags that they would like to help themselves to, with no effective recourse for the passenger? From what you’re saying, and from the TSA’s claims page, the answer seems to be “yes”… but I guess the only true test of this would be for someone with verifiable damages as a result of such an action to take the matter to court.
Last summer on a trip to Williamsburg, my son brought his musket in a case that required a special TSA lock. We opened it up for inspection before checking it. When it came out on the other end, the lock was missing. Fortunately, the contents were there. But it took us over 2 hrs to track down a lock that would fit for the return trip.
Bad enough that you have to use a TSA lock, but they could at least replace it if they open it.
Theft isn’t the only problem. On a trip to Amsterdam, I bought a jar of paint pigment from the shop in Rembrandt’s house. It’s the same red pigment that he used in his paintings, and it’s very potent. The lid was sealed and the jar was carefully wrapped to make sure it didn’t break. Sure enough, our friends at TSA unwrapped it, opened the jar, and placed it back in the suitcase without the wrapping and the lid not screwed properly. Everything in the bag was covered with red pigment, some of it permanently.
That’s one way to do it. I put my jewelry (I don’t travel with anything expensive, but there is some faux gemstone stuff in there) in a half-empty bag of menstrual pads. I rely on the irrational male ick factor to keep their fingers off that bag. So far, it’s worked like a charm, even when my bag’s been searched.
As a federal government employee, this is not always true. In fact, in my circle, just the opposite. The ID I have attached to every bag is also inside every bag, as the airlines and TSA all strongly suggest every traveler do. It just so happens that ID clearly states I am a fellow federal government employee. If anything, the warning tells the TSA inspector that, “I know how the game is played and I will not let you get away with it.”
Yup, I still might lose something. But I will win my case, too. Then watch me make a public example of it.
Dirty underwear also works. So does stuffing my Leatherman into a pair of shoes, then filled with dirty socks, all in the bag.
Sadly I rarely pack dirty underwear for the outward trip.
Is there some reason the item confiscated is not documented on the sheet telling you something was confiscated? This seems like it would create an environment ready made for theft as some in this thread think exists already.
I also can’t understand the reasoning behind confiscating a pair of earrings from checked luggage. I mean if they look like talons and they were in the carry-on luggage the TSA agent could claim they were weapons. In the checked luggage that doesn’t make any sense.
Sure it does. In this case, the TSA inspector is probably a thief. If you create an environment where people can get away with this sort of thing with no repercussions, they will. Since the TSA is comprised of, for the most part, lightly-trained, minimumly-motivated drones with Napoleon Complexes, abuse is almost guaranteed.
ETA: This, of course, is my opinion. YMMV. But the abuse is there regardless.
I agree with you, but is there some legitimate reasoning for the “confiscation” they could hide behind? And, while we’re at it, who would the theft victim have to convince the confiscation was not legitimate to get the property back?
Do the TSA inspectors work in a space that isn’t supervised or on closed circuit tv with other inspectors watching? If not, wouldn’t this be a reasonable thing for the airlines to insist upon? I personally think the photographs and inventory list are a good thing. I don’t fly if I can help it and these scenarios are a big reason why. Who watches the watchers?
My understanding (my wife used to work at a airport) is that the TSA inspectors are under video surveillance, but I would guess that even if that’s the case, it would be very hard to spot petty theft (although it might help catch a pattern of theft).
I used to work for TSA as a checked luggage screener from 2002 until 2003. Our protocol then was to only open the bags if they alarmed the xray (it’s really a CT scan made by L3 communications) machine AND swabbed positive for explosives. Once it was opened, the ONLY person allowed to search it was a supervisor who was in attendant with a police officer and K9 unit. THIS GOES TO SHOW YOU how rare a bagged alarmed both machines. Sure, we had a bag alarm the xray a lot, but rarely did it swab positive for explosives with the ionizer.
Now, I’m sure things have changed dramatically since then, so I don’t know their protocol now, but that’s how it was done back then.
My point is, it was pretty hard for someone to steal something back then, especially since there was a cop present when it was being searched by a supervisor. I’m not saying it’s impossible and it didn’t happen, but it’s hard.
Also, the letters we put in the package never stated that something was confiscated, they only stated that we opened the luggage and gave a list of things that could be done, your rights and who to contact. Because we did have warrantless search authority when checking luggage.
Another thing to address. There are two types of TSA screeners. The ones up top checking passengers and carry on luggage, those are the ones under surveillance and the ones in the basement checking all the checked luggage. That’s what I was and we were not under camera observation at all.
Also, one more thing I thought I’d let you all know about, an insider secret kinda… The stuff you pack in your luggage, the checked luggage that is. Make sure it’s not thick or consistent. What I mean is, someone said up above that they opened his bag up and took out his paint. That’s because it alarmed the xray machine because it was thick and the xray couldn’t shoot through it. They opened it up because they had to swab it to test it for explosives. Anything like that will make it alarm.
Peanut butter, conditioner, silly putty, C4 etc… The ONLY thing that machine was designed for is to look for explosives and the components to make an explosive, because most explosives are thick and can’t be xrayed. Maybe the ear rings looked like a detonator or detonator wire? weirder things have happened. WE had an alarm clock look just like a bomb once.
So don’t pack anything that is thick, has a lot of wires and batteries and your bag more than likely won’t be alarmed and will be passed through with no trouble.
TSA loves me! I got home a couple days ago and, upon opening my suitcase, discovered that our wonderful airport security folks had searched through my checkins. Finding nothing worth confiscating, they left me a present!
A friend of mine is a detective with the transit police (I’m not sure if they’re state or federal). A few years ago, he and a few other officers broke a ring of TSA employees here at BWI airport who had been stealing high-end items like iPods and DVD players from the luggage of departing military deployees.
The SOBs reasoned that it would harder for someone to complain when they’re in Afghanistan or Iraq for a year. :mad:
F.U. tell your friend that he and the other guys that work with him rock.
I have to take some exception to what diggleblop posted about when bags are opened. I often have to travel auto parts, and with various types of tools, both mechanical and electronic. Every single time I have tools or auto parts in my suitcase, it gets opened. I have returned from trips with 4 or 5 of those “we opened your suitcase” slips. When I don’t have auto parts or tools, my bag never gets opened.
No nitrates, as they swab my laptop case and I never get flagged, so it is just what they see on the x-ray.
