How did this happen?

[mangosteen]

So, 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.

Comments

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

-My folks have a large boat, currently in England. Dad flies over there routinely to work on it. (Like, he's made three trips just since I moved in a few months back.) Some of the stuff he brings over there is simply cheaper here, but a lot is American-compatible electronics. Thus far, his primary concern has been keeping within the weight and bulk limits for checked bags, not theft. He's never had anything stolen.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Take a movie of you packing your bag to show what you put in, also show you putting in several copies of a inventory list, with a checking off of each item on the list as it's packed...

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

self addressed padded envelopes with lots of postage are good too.

the TSA is just the current bogey man. priorly, anyone handling your bag might've had the chance to nick something. bags get lost. things fall out. the TSA is just a more solid label to point a stick at.

good luck on the trip :)

#

bag in a bag?

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

can you pack a squishy bag, lock it, and then pack it inside the regular bag? then there's not a noticable lock on the outside, but a deterrent on the inside. or buy travel insurance (not that expensive, i think?) and do the videotape/inventory list thing, so at least you get re-embursed if something gets stolen.

[vatine]

The TSA is staffed with people like the very helpful lady at Roanoke, VA who had a look in my passport, pointed at the date that said "22 Apr 71" (just under the the text that said Date of birth) and said, in a loud panicked voice "IS that the expiry date?" to me.

[the-gwenzilliad.livejournal.com]

Where in the UK? Wanna have dinner with us?

-g

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

To me the problem is not so much that the TSA might rifle through your luggage but the attitude to anyone questioning anything the TSA does. If you so much as squeak at them it seems like they give you as hard a time as they possibly can, and that's pretty hard.
(That goes for anything to do with US travel security, or immigration).

[tla]

Have you heard of stuff being stolen from locked baggage by the TSA? If not, I suspect the paranoia stems from the fact that you know they will open it and you can't stop them.

[sweh.livejournal.com]

EVer since I started to travel with work (1990) I never trusted any airline with electronic stuff in my bag. The first time was between London and Amsterdam and my briefcase weighed more than my suitcase (it had a laptop, an external SCSI QIC-150 tape drive, some controllers, some tapes, a walkman, batteries, chargers etc etc). A pain in the arse if the security guys want proof that the laptop works (it's a clever packing system that let it all fit!) but it meant I didn't have to worry about damage in transit.

That's what I'm more worried about; damage. I've seen how these bags get thrown around and there was no way my laptop was gonna go bouncing like that!!

The last few times I've flown since 9/11 (New York/New Jersey to London and back) I've still locked my check-in luggage. Once I was randomly picked from the line for an inspection. Never has the lock been cut off.

[mangosteen]

Primarily Cambridge and London, with a couple of days in Edinburgh in the middle. Dinner could be a definite possibility, but I'm already pretty scheduled. Send me mail and we can figure something out. :)

[jetgrrl01.livejournal.com]

My suitcase was searched both ways to and from Baltimore (from Manchester, NH) and I got a nice little note from the TSA that said, "You know! For the security!". Thankfully nothing was taken, but I was wondering what triggered it. I have to assume it was the x-ray seeing lots of little electronic things. A hair dryer, a battery charger, an i-pod charger, a phone charger... they must all add up to looking suspicious. Or something. On the way back I had a couple wedding gifts and they were still there, thank goodness. Still, I'd be concerned, just as you are.

[xeger.livejournal.com]

I don't lock my suitcase - I zip tie it - the zip ties act nicely as a tamper gate, keep the zippers from flying open at the Wrong Time, and tend to be nicely visible on the baggage carousel.

The TSA doesn't give me warm fuzzies either. Out of the three different services that I've had the dubious privledge of being hauled over and searched by, their attitude seemed to be centered around "I can do what I want to you, how I want, if I want", not "I'm a professional doing my job".

I'm not sure that I can properly articulate how frustrating the difference between the polite and efficient "Please step aside with your belongings", followed by a quick and unemotional review of self and belongings of the Japanese and Canadian workers - and the flustering and screaming to do contradictory things that the TSA seems to encourage.

Similarly, while I appreciate the availibility of multilingual employees, it's really wonderful if the employees in question speak the primary language of the country in question.

Hrm. I suspect that part of what I'm pointing out here is the difference between a career job, and porly paid hourly work...

[fieldsnyc.livejournal.com]

It seems that if you don't mind quite a lot of extra delay, you can, sometimes, at some airports, request that they inspect your bags in your presence and then seal them. This happened to me once by chance, so I'm guessing it's worth a shot to ask.

But that wasn't really your question.

A government agency has been created in response to panic, without being well-thought out. It is rife with inefficiency, the proposed solution is "throw money at the problem" (of course, the amount of money required to actually solve this problem by throwing money at it, which is a dubious solution at best, is several orders of magnitude higher than what's been provided), and now it's being revealed that the TSA agents themselves are no better at resisting the time pressures of the airlines than the old staff was.

Security's not easy.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Oh, a few other things:

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.

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

Add to that what I suspect is likely a significant lack of accountability for their actions (a la customs) and I suspect even the career ones go bad.

[darklady-produc.livejournal.com]

When the Sweetheart relocated from Anchorage to Portland, TSA managed to thoroughly fuck up his computer, killing 7 hard drives and making the only one they didn't kill run in circles whimpering and crying. (sigh)

Feeling safer yet?

[bfo.livejournal.com]

Mine got cut off last year which was annoying, but then i did have bits of rocket etc in my bag, nothing dodgy and they were aware of it, i just forgot to leave the lock off.