Journal annielaurie's Journal: The Great TSA Violation of 2004 10
OK, very strange trip last week. The flight was from BWI to BHM, on Southwest. It's a less than two hour deal.
This time I packed to stay for two weeks, and I packed a lot of dress clothes for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture. Clothes, two pairs of shoes, and assorted underwear made a monolithic mass in the medium-sized Samsonite rolling suitcase that is my mainstay. A second, smaller suitcase held assorted jeweler's tools, wires and stringing materials, my kit bag, and a pair of sweats. I checked with Southwest before packing this one, because of all those tools, and was told simply to tell the attendant at check-in. (I checked both bags, again because of the tools.)
To my surprise, when I picked up my baggage, the larger bag had a tie-wrap arrangement in blue secured through the zippers. It bore the legend "TSA" and an inscrutable number. Upon arriving at Aged Mum's and preparing to unpack, I found a very patriotic-looking red, white, and blue card reposing atop the pile of clothes. It said, essentially: "Hello from your friends at TSA. We found it necessary to paw through this bag. It's a good thing you had left it unlocked, otherwise we would have busted the lock. Hail to the Chief."
I have a lot of questions about this. Why, for example, check the bag of LL Bean's best womens' wear while leaving all the sharp objects and wire in the other bag alone? Where is my necklace of pink freshwater pearls that I wear with everything these days? Am I alone in getting the skeeves because they didn't check the bag in my presence? (US Customs, noted for their great surliness, has pawed through my luggage on numerous occasions--always in my presence. Mexican Customs actually extracted a pair of white cotton drawers and held them aloft for all to see--but I was right there to chew them out.) How did browsing through my underwear enable TSA to enhance homeland security? Am I unpatriotic to want my necklace back? Would I feel any better if I didn't know they'd checked the bag? Now that I have had a bag checked, am I somehow marked for life?
I have no idea of the answers to any of these. I don't feel very patriotic at the moment, and I'm as mad as hell about my necklace. If we have to go through this, it would be nice not to get robbed.
hey there (Score:2)
Re:hey there (Score:2)
Actually, my cell phone and PDA sailed through inspection. I had them in my purse. I doubt you will have any problems. Take them off and put them in one of the plastic bins with your jacket or coat.
(I spent a lot of time in Vegas about four years ago, setting three hotels up with thin-clients an
Re:hey there (Score:2)
i'd like to get to spend more time there.. but so far i've only gone when the company has sent me.. it's good to be a prize winner
Re:hey there (Score:2)
I doubt you'll have any trouble at all with your phone and PDA. I haven't traveled with a laptop since pre-9/11, but people seem to get along all right with those, too.
Anne
Re:hey there (Score:2)
(did i mention they broke off a bunch of locks on the suitcase that were not actually locking anything closed?? lol)
The law is an ass, and it needs to be spanked (Score:2)
Perhaps it would be better if the statute treated theft from baggage under those circumstances as a case of violation of civil rights under color of law. That would make it much easier to come down on both the thief and the agency when they pull shit like this.
(I almost wrote "when shit like this happens", but shit doesn't just happen; people do shit, and they ought to pay a high price for it.)
Violation of Civil Rights (Score:2)
Both of my sons (young adults--late teens, early twenties) traveled to Europe over the same Christmas vacation a couple of years ago. One went to Ireland, the other to Amsterdam. The older of the two was mugged and made it home with only a few dollars in his pocket. He was held by Customs for over four hours for no reason at all. They don'
Related stuff... (Score:1)
Re:Related stuff... (Score:2)
Thank you for pointing it out. I have a feeling this is going to keep bothering me. I'll have several more flights on Southwest before the Aged Mum is settled in her new digs.
Anne
Re:Related stuff... (Score:1)