How did this happen?
Jul. 12th, 2004 11:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mangosteenSo, I'm going to the UK in less than two days (i.e. I'll be halfway across the Atlantic 48 hours from now).
In the interest of taking advantage of inefficient markets, I'm shlepping a significant amount of consumer electronics over there. Given the amount and the nature of the electronics, I'm more than willing to declare it and pay VAT... it's still cheaper than getting it locally in the UK.
So, I'm trying to figure out how to pack everything appropriately, with full knowledge that I can't actually lock any of my checked luggage, because the TSA will look at my lock, going "you're 8 days old and I'm the mohel", and it'll all go bad. Because, you see, when you start talking about a couple thousand dollars of easily stealable, easily resold electronics, you start getting a little paranoid.
But who am I really scared of? Well, I gave that a bit of thought, and then it occurred to me. It wasn't the baggage handlers, and it wasn't some opportunistic twit loitering by the baggage claim at Heathrow...
It was the TSA.
The goddamn TSA.
I'm worried about some TSA goon cutting the lock (or unlocking a TSA-approved lock with a TSA-supplied tool), taking something out, re-sealing the bag, and I won't know until I get to Heathrow, by which time a digital camera is sitting in a pawn shop in Southie. Even if I insure everything (which I have), good luck on prying a police report out of the Boston Police... it's not like I can even prove when it happened. I have nightmares about even trying to make a stolen goods claim with the TSA.
As it turns out, I'm just going to unbox everything, re-pack it all in much more compact and proper-fitting enclosures, and carry the expensive stuff on the plane with me (and hope they overlook the whole 9kg weight limit thing).
I guess my main question is... how did the Transportation Security Administration become the place I trust the least not to nick things from my checked luggage? This strikes me as very odd and very disturbing.
In the interest of taking advantage of inefficient markets, I'm shlepping a significant amount of consumer electronics over there. Given the amount and the nature of the electronics, I'm more than willing to declare it and pay VAT... it's still cheaper than getting it locally in the UK.
So, I'm trying to figure out how to pack everything appropriately, with full knowledge that I can't actually lock any of my checked luggage, because the TSA will look at my lock, going "you're 8 days old and I'm the mohel", and it'll all go bad. Because, you see, when you start talking about a couple thousand dollars of easily stealable, easily resold electronics, you start getting a little paranoid.
But who am I really scared of? Well, I gave that a bit of thought, and then it occurred to me. It wasn't the baggage handlers, and it wasn't some opportunistic twit loitering by the baggage claim at Heathrow...
It was the TSA.
The goddamn TSA.
I'm worried about some TSA goon cutting the lock (or unlocking a TSA-approved lock with a TSA-supplied tool), taking something out, re-sealing the bag, and I won't know until I get to Heathrow, by which time a digital camera is sitting in a pawn shop in Southie. Even if I insure everything (which I have), good luck on prying a police report out of the Boston Police... it's not like I can even prove when it happened. I have nightmares about even trying to make a stolen goods claim with the TSA.
As it turns out, I'm just going to unbox everything, re-pack it all in much more compact and proper-fitting enclosures, and carry the expensive stuff on the plane with me (and hope they overlook the whole 9kg weight limit thing).
I guess my main question is... how did the Transportation Security Administration become the place I trust the least not to nick things from my checked luggage? This strikes me as very odd and very disturbing.
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no subject
Date: 2004-07-13 10:14 pm (UTC)1) post September 11, a friend of mine returned from the funeral of her father. He was in the military, and received a military funeral, with full honors. Which includes a 21-gun salute. After the funeral the shells were gathered and divided equally between the three siblings. On the journey home, her luggage was searched and the TSA removed the 7 spent shell casings. Cause maybe they'd explode or something. Who knows what moronities lurk in the minds of the TSA.
2) pre September 11, by a decade or so, my father learned the lesson of careful placement of gear in luggage. I don't remember if this was a carry-on, or a checked bag, but I'd have to say at the moment it was carry-on. (I was not with them this particular trip.) The bag went through the x-ray machine, and the guard pulled his gun out and had my father take his bag into another room. Where they had blast barriers. The guards them made him very slowly open his bag, still under arms, while the guards stood behind the blast barriers.
My father had placed his Baby Ben wind-up alarm clock next to his two D-cell flashlight. This apparently looks Just Like A Bomb. Needless to say, he never placed them side by side again, and never had that sort of problem. I think he now uses a hand-powered flashlight now, anyways.