Had to fly from Great Lakes area to Pacific Northwest today for work. I checked one bag, carried on a second one (looks like this) I'm extremely anal about my bag and what's in it, especially after TSA confiscated my favorite PC toolkit of all time because I forgot about it. I also had a TSA employee nearly poke me in the eye with a small pair of scissors I'd forgotten in a bathroom kit ('DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS?!?') I also have to run this bag through a xray checkpoint at a federal building daily, and I rarely change its contents. The only questionable item I was aware of in my luggage was a folding knife of about four inches in length, and that was checked.
At the TSA Stop & Rob checkpoint, I stripped down as requested, removed the laptop from the bag, and ran it through. After scanning it, the xray screener picks it up and asks who it belongs to. I acknowledge its mine, and he tells me he's going to run it through again. I usually carry cameras and a laptop in that bag, and it's not unusual for the screeners to at least ask about it. Apparently the batteries for those devices throw up a red flag sometimes. He runs it through again, no problems. I pick it up, put the laptop back inside, get dressed, and go to my gate.
At the gate, I rummage through the bag looking for some gum. At the bottom of the bag, I grasp what I realize is the knife I usually carry to work. I had forgotten it was in there. It's a small folding type with a plastic handle, looks like this except smaller, less than 5" total length, with the serration filed off. The federal building doesn't prohibit this knife, but TSA most certainly does, and the guy missed it TWICE.
What I wonder is how many other mistakes like this they make? I forgot the knife was in there. Would it have been that much harder for someone to do this on purpose? Did he see the knife and make a judgement call, thinking I looked unterrorist-like?
I have mixed feelings about the increased security. I'm not going to go on a rant now about what I think is wrong with security in this country, but feel free to discuss yourselves.
jmm
At the TSA Stop & Rob checkpoint, I stripped down as requested, removed the laptop from the bag, and ran it through. After scanning it, the xray screener picks it up and asks who it belongs to. I acknowledge its mine, and he tells me he's going to run it through again. I usually carry cameras and a laptop in that bag, and it's not unusual for the screeners to at least ask about it. Apparently the batteries for those devices throw up a red flag sometimes. He runs it through again, no problems. I pick it up, put the laptop back inside, get dressed, and go to my gate.
At the gate, I rummage through the bag looking for some gum. At the bottom of the bag, I grasp what I realize is the knife I usually carry to work. I had forgotten it was in there. It's a small folding type with a plastic handle, looks like this except smaller, less than 5" total length, with the serration filed off. The federal building doesn't prohibit this knife, but TSA most certainly does, and the guy missed it TWICE.
What I wonder is how many other mistakes like this they make? I forgot the knife was in there. Would it have been that much harder for someone to do this on purpose? Did he see the knife and make a judgement call, thinking I looked unterrorist-like?
I have mixed feelings about the increased security. I'm not going to go on a rant now about what I think is wrong with security in this country, but feel free to discuss yourselves.
jmm
) You have now solved 99% of the problem. All you have to worry about now is explosives and axes. What do we call the TSA people? Calling them "pigs" is too good cause the police perform a wanted service and the vast majority of them arn't prics. (Only met one or two bad cops in my life, everyone else has been good.)