Posted on 12/17/2004 9:18:58 AM PST by yatros from flatwater
The travel season is here, but, do you feel safe sending your luggage through the airport? The surveillance video is disturbing. A TSA worker at JFK airport in New York, allegedly rifling through a bag planted by police, removing jewels and money. This suspect was charged with larceny and possession of stolen property. Theft has been a problem for as long as travelers have been checking their bags, but now, the TSA is keeping track. Since taking control of baggage screening nearly two years ago, it's received more than 28,000 complaints of damaged, lost or stolen items. The total value: nearly $36 million. But no one knows how many of those are false claims. Air traveler Randy Rutland says, "Everything was in the luggage when we left from here." Rutland, of Louisiana, claims it happened to him while flying out of New Orleans. He says his luggage was checked, then secured with blue tags to indicate they'd been hand searched by the TSA, but when he got his bags, a brand new digital camera and his daughter's compact discs were missing. "I think somebody went through our bags, saw a nice camera and some cd's and they took 'em," Rutland says. The value: $1600. So far, the TSA has settled some 19,000 claims totaling $2.5 million, including $152,000 worth of claims at LAX, $111,000 dollars at JFK, followed by Seattle, Las Vegas and Oakland. The TSA is now adding surveillance cameras in baggage handling and secure areas to watch for theft. TSA Administrator, Admiral David Stone, says, "In issues of theft, there's a zero-tolerance and we need to make sure that we route that out of our organization because it gets to the very core of who we are and that trust and confidence bond with the American people." Only 66 TSA workers have been arrested out of 60,000 present and past TSA screeners, and for every TSA employee who handles a bag, it's touched by four airline employees. Still, the TSA itself warns travelers to pack valuables, like jewelry and money in carry-on bags.
He's from the government and he's here to help...himself
The article doesn't say he was fired so i suspect he was not.
The old pre-TSA baggage handlers stole stuff, too. Seems like there are people who are just too tempted by all those goodies in all those bags.
The video cameras are a good idea. They should have always been there.
If your bag wasn't broken into at JFK then you weren't flying in or out of JFK
This guy was from the French gummit, looking for those lost explosives....
Well, yes there have always been thieves, but now the security procedures preclude the use of locks!
DON'T put valuable or personal items in a bag you are checking. Carry them on your person. Why take a chance on having something stolen when you can just as easily carry it on? Our clothing and shoes go in our checked bags. If someone steals them we can always buy new when we get where we are going. If it means wearing one pair of slacks and one top the whole time we are there...so be it. However, I can still take photos with the camera I CARRIED ON.
I DO feel better now, Thanks.
Here's Northwest's policy:
Excess Valuation Passengers may declare a higher value for checked luggage, by purchasing additional liability insurance at the time of check-in. Charges shown below are for one-way travel.
Domestic/Transborder: Per Passenger
Maximum Amount -- US Dollars $5,000.00/Canadian Dollars $6,750.00
Charges: US Dollars $1.00 for each additional hundred dollars of value Canadian Dollars $1.35 for each additional $135 of value
Example: If a customer wishes to purchase an additional $500 of liability insurance, and they are traveling domestically, the charge for this would be $5.00
International: Per Passenger
Maximum Amount -- US Dollars $2,500.00/Canadian Dollars $3,125.00
Charges: US Dollars $1.00 for each additional hundred dollars of value. Canadian Dollars $1.25 for each additional $125 of value.
They also explicitly say:
Customers should NOT pack medications, car keys, tickets, passports and other legal documentation, or valuable items such as jewelry or cameras in checked luggage. For a complete listing of items excluded from liability, please refer to the full text of the Northwest Airlines contract of carriage, which can be obtained online, at a Northwest airport counter or ticket office or by writing to: ...
And their contract of carriage excludes liability for:
1) MONEY 2) JEWELRY (INCLUDING WATCHES) 3) SILVERWARE 4) NEGOTIABLE PAPERS 5) CAMERA EQUIPMENT, FILM, PHOTOGRAPHS 6) PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT 7) ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT 8) SECURITIES 9) BUSINESS DOCUMENTS 10) SAMPLES 11) COMPUTER EQUIPMENT AND RELATED COMPONENTS 12) PAINTINGS 13) ANTIQUES 14) MANUSCRIPTS 15) IRREPLACEABLE BOOKS OR PUBLICATIONS 16) KEYS 17) MEDICATION 18) IRREPLACEABLE ITEMS (ONE OF A KIND)
"...oh, and by the way, we can declare anything to be contraband, retroactively and without notice, so better put anything you don't want confiscated in your checked baggage."
Take /
Steal
Anything
So then how do you deal with valuables that are restricted from being carried on the plane ? Like a nice zippo
For that matter how do you address the issue of immigrants flying to america that may have more than one carry on worth of valuables?
I have a better idea ... shoot luggage thives and put cameras up to deter the rest.
Hand carry everthing that's worth a damn.
And people wonder why I refuse to fly.
do you think infirm elderly should be exempt from security checks?
Al Quaida is not above kidnapping some kid and forcing his grandmother in a wheelchair to blow herself up on an airliner in order to spare the relative. They use these tactics all over the Middle-East.
And yet we're supposed to endure the humiliations visited upon us by the TSA?
I, for one, have no intention of flying. The airline industry can file their chapter 7 bankruptcies; if I cannot drive to my destination, I simply will not go.
Good point. Your asking for it to check bags in with valuables.
Claims have been way up since the TSA was created.
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