Taking Something Always.
That’s what TSA means to airline passengers like Edward Fleiss, a sales manager from Huntington, N.Y. When screeners inspected his wife’s carry-on bag at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport recently, he claims her designer eyeglasses were swiped.
“Great sleight of hand,” he says. “We didn’t even know they were gone until we got to Los Angeles.”
Letters to the Transportation Security Administration — that’s what TSA actually stands for, in case you were wondering — were met with a form response. “Dear traveler, thank you, but no reimbursement on a $500 pair of glasses,” he recalls.
Thieving TSA? You might be forgiven for thinking so.
Since it was created in 2001, the agency has fired about 200 employees accused of stealing. Although the TSA has taken steps to discourage these government workers from helping themselves to our personal effects — including background checks on new hires, video cameras in screening areas and rules forbidding backpacks or lunchboxes at checkpoints — more and more passengers like Fleiss are coming forward to say they’ve been ripped off by the very people who are supposed to protect them.
It doesn’t help that hardly a week goes by without another story about alleged TSA pilferage making headlines. Here’s one from a Miami TV station, where 1,500 items have been reported stolen at the airport since 2003. Here’s someone who had his engagement ring filched by screeners in Los Angeles. Here’s another one involving a 12-year-old’s heartbreaking loss of $265 in birthday money.
You don’t need a travel columnist to tell you this agency has a problem. The evidence speaks for itself.
But here’s what you might not know. The stealing isn’t as random as the TSA may want you to believe. Fleiss visited an optometrist for a replacement pair of glasses, and learned that since the TSA was created seven years ago, he’d seen a “marked increase” in patients requesting receipts for insurance claims relating to security-related thefts. “He said there is a huge market for stolen designer eyewear frames in the New York area,” he added. “You put it together.”
One aviation insider I spoke with believes stealing is a systemic problem the federal agency is unable to control, particularly at problem airports like New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Philadelphia International Airport. Not all of the screening areas in U.S. airports are under surveillance, and the TSA’s rules have a big loophole that shifts liability for stolen baggage claims to the airline when luggage is delayed, he told me. In other words, there’s little incentive for the stealing to stop. “It’s the 800-pound gorilla no one wants to discuss at TSA,” he says.
I contacted the TSA to get its side of the story. Sari Koshetz, a TSA spokeswoman, sent me an e-mail to say the agency is concerned about theft. “TSA aggressively investigates all allegations of misconduct,” she wrote. “When infractions are discovered, it moves swiftly to end the federal careers of offenders.” She added that travelers with questions should visit the TSA’s Web site for claim information.
I’ve got a better idea. Why not make sure your valuables aren’t taken in the first place? Here are five tips:
Don’t try to beat the system
If you think you can avoid a TSA theft by steering clear of LaGuardia or Philadelphia, think again. Reader David Cumpston had a $50 bottle of cologne stolen from his bag in San Francisco. They lifted a box of Montecristo cigars out of P.J. Zornosa’s bag in Florida. “Hope someone enjoyed them,” he grumbles. And Jeanne Rose lost one shoe — a brand-new Merrick clog — in Atlanta. Why just one shoe? Who knows? Point is, you can’t predict where a TSA thief might strike next.
TSA-approved locks are useless, so don’t even bother
Anyone can access your luggage after you’ve checked it. Anyone. Don’t believe me? Here’s how to break into a bag without the benefit of a TSA master key. Besides, the TSA likes to confiscate the locks after they’re done rummaging through your belongings, according to readers like Paula Craig. “Sometimes, I get the Dear Paula, we have been through your luggage letter — and sometimes not,” she says. “It’s maddening.”
Don’t pack anything valuable in your checked in luggage
That’s not just a bad idea because a TSA agent or an airline baggage handler might take something; it’s also a terrible idea because if an airline loses it, you probably won’t be reimbursed for it. Joe Zinno, a retiree from Seattle, slipped his digital camera in his luggage, from which he believes a TSA officer removed it on a recent trip. He contacted the agency to make a claim, and after “a very long time” it responded with a form letter. “They said there would be no compensation,” he recalls. Airlines don’t cover electronics in checked luggage, either.
Better yet, leave all of your valuables at home
Packing your valuables in carry-on luggage is no guarantee the TSA — or the airline — won’t be able to get to it. For example, you might have to gate-check your carry-on if there’s no room in the overhead bin on the plane. Or, like Fleiss, an agent could pull a fast one at the passenger screening area. Cheryl Wahlheim, an information systems manager from Boulder, Colo., had jewelry stolen out of her bag by what she suspects was a TSA employee. Making a claim proved impossible. “They sent me a form letter and basically I had to present them with a document containing pictures of all the stolen jewelry, receipts for all the jewelry and the current cost of the jewelry,” she says. “Since most of the things were gifts given to me over the years, I had no receipts and no pictures.”
If you can’t live without it, carry it on your person
Items like wedding rings, cash and other valuables should be carried through the checkpoint, wherever possible. Mauranna Sherman of Lynchburg, Va., wishes her husband had kept a close eye on his medication when he passed through the TSA screening area a few years ago. “When we reached our hotel several hours later, it wasn’t in his bag,” she says. “We had to call our house sitter, who used her own money to deliver it to our family in Texas the next day. What a hassle.”
Bottom line: if you want to see your valuables again, don’t let a TSA agent near them.
There’s one final myth about TSA thefts that needs to be busted, and it involves the claims process. In speaking with airline passengers who claim the TSA took their property, I hear about the same frustrating conclusion almost every time. In the end, they were denied compensation.
Well, the end isn’t really the end. You can appeal your case to my counterpart at the TSA. Its ombudsman can be reached at TSA.Ombudsman@dhs.gov.
✓ Get the latest travel news, tips and commentary from Elliott’s E-Mail, the subversive newsletter from industry gadfly Christopher Elliott. You’ll travel like a pro. Sign up here. It’s free.
Sign up for my 
{ 3 trackbacks }
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Drat, I wish I had that link when TSA yoinked my (checked) knife on the way to Costa Rica. I was denied, and requested an appeal, which received the response of “the appeals process is stated on the rejection letter”. The statement? That I could appeal to the local small claims court.
Every time I read something like this, it makes my blood boil.
I actually had my small bag of prescription medicines taken out of my suitcase. I was returning home, so instead of keeping 15 bottles with me in my bag, I thought I’d be ok putting it in my suitcase with it’s worthless TSA lock. Silly me! I could tell that it had been rummaged through immediately because they didn’t even bother to relock my lock. (insult to injury) So somewhere in Orlando, FL there is a TSA agent that committed a federal offense by taking a big bag of prescription meds. I realize he/she was probably looking for pain pills. Instead they found the heart meds and anti-epilepsy medicines that are so necessary to our family’s survival. Good thing I had some extras at home, or we would have been panicked.
TSA= government approved theft in my house
Chris- I’m kind of surprised at this article. You’re only tip is really ‘leave everything possible at home because there’s no way to avoid them stealing it’. How about something a little more helpful than what we already know? Like maybe ways to hide a Doberman in our luggage so when they try to get into our stuff to steal it, they’ll have a great surprise? Or booby-trapping your suitcase so if the lock is broken it self-destructs? I’d find that useful…. :-)
Aimee
My wife had an unactivated cellphone stolen, almost surely by TSA. It was in its original packaging; she was going to be giving it to our daughter.
“Valuable” is a relative term. Maybe one does not need to travel with $10,000 jewelry but everything you put in a suitcase costs something to replace. A pair of shoes might cost more than that cellphone.
Unfortunately, saying that no claims will be honored for certain kinds of items, like electronics, is tantamount to declaring open season on them, since many travelers will not bother filing a claim that they know will be ignored and the thieves know that too. Most of the time the value of the item is under one’s homeowners insurance deductible, so a report isn’t even needed for that purpose either.
And by the way what is “electronics”? Would it include, for example, the USB wireless adapter, probably worth about $40, that I absent mindedly tossed in my checked bag last week and worried about it all the way home? (whew, it was still there).
Last trip they confiscated a small knife that had been my late husbands. I only wish I had a printed copy of the latest guidelines for length of the blade. I think they took this because it has cyrillic(sp?) writing on it. Great souvenier. This same knife had been with me on two round trips to Europe with no problem. I was told I could go out and find a place to buy an envelope for $12.00 to mail it to myself. This meant a loss of time and another security check go through. Duh. My fault for not doing that, I guess.
So far my cell phone and charger have remained with me.
I worry not only about theft, but that TSA or the baggage handlers will actually plant something in luggage to get rid of it in a hurry, e.g. drugs. I recently read about a Japanese drug enforcement officer, who (against the rules) planted marijuana in a suitcase in an attempt to prove to himself that the sniffer dog could actually find it. Usually, dog training is done with a practice suitcase. The “sabotaged” suitcase was not found, which could mean that the passenger was detained at his destination airport and even arrested.
Do you have any suggestions on allaying that fear?
Not all TSA agents are theives as so indicated in the mailings. My daughter works with TSA at DFW and they go out of their way to make sure everything that comes in with the passenger leaves with the passenger. I personally witnessed this several years ago. A passenger had taken off her wedding rings when going thru security (why I don’t know.) She forgot to take them out of the bucket when she picked up the rest of her belongings. Right before she boarded the plane she realized what she had done and reported it to the ticket agent. She boarded the plane while the TSA agents went in search of her rings. They found them, had the plane stopped and had the lady get off the plane to identify them. They returned them to her and she did not so much as even offer a thank you. Yes there are bad people in this world but there are more good ones than bad ones.
I’m not surprised, Generally the government has been doing this forever.
My tips are, Photograph & Document Items in your bag before you shut it especially anything valuable in the bag, Use bright colored plastic, cable, zip ties on your zippers, this wont prevent theft but at least you will know that your bag was opened as soon as you get it and can start the claim process at once. Discreetly mark the ties because some of the handlers are bringing their own.
Don’t forget the multi-million dollar scanning machines that we taxpayers bought for them — just so they would know EXACTLY which bags to break into.
Two years ago, when packing while tired, for a return trip home, I screwed up and packed my wife’s small necklaces and earrings case in the bottom (back) of one of our to-be-checked suitcases. (I know: my bad.)
When we picked up our luggage at our destination airport, THAT bag – not the other one – had been looted. The inside of the bag was an ABSOLUTE disaster — because they had to dig so deep into the bag to find the gold that their high precision scanner told them was there. And, they took ONLY the two gold necklaces and gold earrings — two silver necklaces and earrings were found loose in the mess that was the contents of the bag.
If the TSA Luggage Looters are required at all to go through security at work, I’ll bet they only go through a metal detector to ENTER the airport security area(s). When they LEAVE, they walk out – risk free – with pockets full of gold (and other small items.)
Oh, yes, we filed a claim, too. Our claim process, regretably, went the same way as related by the other responders above.
Now that you can see that locking your suitcase means very little if someone wants in it, why do you all have to keep assuming that it was a TSA employee that stole your missing items?
Do you know the punishment, not to mention the criminal complications should a TSA employee get caught stealing? Yeah, I know, the key word is “caught”. But, for most law abiding citizens, including those that take the risk of being blown up daily so that commuters can get from point A to point B in one piece, the possibility of getting caught is deterrent enough. For a TSA employee it means losing a lot more than just some of your life in jail. . .
Their are however criminals or those that do not think of consequences everywhere, so I am not saying that it hasn’t happened, but, do you think perhaps there could be others that work for the airlines, are usually less paid and are in contact with the bags a hundred times longer than a TSA employee that could be behind the thefts?
Screening of baggage takes no more than a few minutes and the majority of bags (85%) are never opened thanks to X-ray machines. Of those that are checked without an X-ray machine, only 20% are opened. Again, screened for only a few minutes each, and in the presence of others.
If we got your bag an hour before your flight and had it for less than five minutes, who do you think had control of it for the other fifty five minutes? The airline employees. If you research online you will see countless reports of airline employees being caught stealing luggage and/or their contents, not to mention being involved in drug and weapons smuggling, etc.
Then. Let us not forget the idiots. Those passengers that left their camera on the nightstand at the hotel, cologne in the airport bathroom or dropped something else in the cab enroute to the airport. I have heard countless stories of what has been left behind at hotels and with cab drivers.. and do you think that the very low paid and hard working hotel cleaning persons or cab drivers will always say; “yes, you left your items here”, get real.
And by the way, it does sometime happen that items may fall out of a bag, or off the screening table when bags are being checked. . .table space is limited and so many bags are EXTREMELY over filled.
If you check TSA’s lost and found department (yes, each airport has one) AND the Airport’s lost and found department (yes, you guessed it, they all have one) you would see an impressive assortment of valuable items that no one has claimed that will eventually be sold at auction or donated to charity.
Additionally, consider one fact mentioned, “since 2001 about 200 TSA employees have been “accused” of stealing passenger items”. Thats 200 out of 40,000+ employees(the plus includes nearly 25,000 additional employees that have changed since 2002) . . .
So the next time your items are missing, I hope that you assume all of the above, before you start blaming a TSA employee.
“Fly Smart”
My wife flew out of Denver 26 June 10pm on Frontier direct flight to Spokane.
She packed hurriedly and inadvertently put her jewelry case in her checked luggage.
TSA has the xray machines.
It has gone missing. I suspect TSA or TSA involvement.
This used to be America where such things did not happen. Instead of looking for contraband and weapons, they are looking for loot and then stealing. I would like to put a live rattlesnake in my next checked luggage.
I have flown twice a month or more for more than 20 years. Before the TSA, I never had trouble with things missing from my checked luggage. In the last six years, and especially the last two, I have had problems with things missing from my checked luggage. Now, you can try passing this off on airline employees, but that seems to be a big coincidence to me.
My wife flew to Los Angeles this week and I leant her my $2500 Macbook Pro for the 20 days she’ll be out there. Her company also provided her with 4-year old $800 Thinkpad, which she chose to keep with her on the plane, and put my Macbook Pro into her luggage and checked it at the ticket counter. The luggage came through on the other end, and it wasn’t until she was unpacking at the hotel hours later that she discovered the laptop and it’s power supply, which had been in zipped in different compartments, were both missing. As there was no delay, I can only imagine it was stolen by a TSA agent in New York before the bag made it onto a the plane.
I think its a good point that less than 1% of TSA has been accused of stealing. Through all this we shouldn’t forget that the majority of TSA workers are doing their jobs, for little pay, protecting us from the terrorists, and when we talk about the bad eggs, we shouldn’t paint these people with the same brush.
That said, sometimes even 1% is too much. When Congress voted on the Patriot Act, twice, they pretty much decided that the possibility of another 9/11, which while tragic affected far less than 1% of the population, was so unacceptable that it was worth blurring a few civil liberties for 100% of the population. If a police officer was raping women at traffic stops, there would still be a public outcry to not only punish him, but also investigate how such a man would be given a badge in the first place–and anyone who tries to prevent such redress by claiming “but, it’s only one bad cop out of hundreds” would be rightly lynched along side him.
The TSA is in a position of trust, which means that any wrongdoing by its members is magnified, as is the expectation that they keep such people from joining their ranks to begin with. Already, our faith is eroded by corruption and cronyism at the management level.
200 thieves in the TSA may not seem like a lot to “Fly Smart,” but if these people are allowed to keep doing so unchecked and unpunished, then their disgruntled victims will number in the tens of thousands before long. While its not fair to blame all of the other 40,000+ honest workers, it is absolutely fair to blame those among them who are in a position to create a system with more oversight and accountability, as well as those who aggressively resist such reform or repeatedly deny that a problem exists.
And public perception is already working against you: the DHS repeatedly ignores FIA requests for transparency in their policy regarding search and seizures, and profiling. US Customs and TSA both have pretty vast power regarding such decisions, as they should, but there is no means of independent review. While some is understandable–it’s probably a bad idea to publish a “how to avoid acting suspicious” guide–can you tell me why, for example, the government refuses to publish the list of seizure guidelines? I mean, right now, every airport tells you that you can be arrested for packing explosives in your bag, and this doesn’t compromise security at all, because of Osama Bin Laden sees the sign and decides NOT to pack explosives in his briefcase, then that rule has already done its job. By refusing to tell anyone, for example, whether screeners need justification to seize your laptop, or your iPod, and when, if ever, they are required to return them, they’re basically creating a situation where the only people who might report a violation of the rules, the victims (the flying public) has no way of knowing what the rules are. I read a common sense guide somewhere that, for example, U.S. customs can’t demand that you turn over your wedding ring before being allowed into the country, which seems like common sense, but DHS/Customs/TSA REFUSE TO TELL US whether or not this is actually against the rules, and whether there is any system in place to detect a violation of said rule and how it would be punished.
Lets all think about this some times some of the “stolen” items may have been left behind. Now I am not saying that there is no way itt was stolen but that often too many times TSA catches the heat. TSA is not the only person that touches a persons bag. Airport employees deal with bags after TSA hs screened the bag under video camera, who knows what the airport (I should say airline) people do. I do know that TSA employees have to go through a lot of backround checks credit checks and they conntact a person prior employers ten years back before hiring a person. Then after being hired they are randomly checked again. Allso might I add that just because your bag has a lock on it does not mean no one can get in. If you have a zipper bag with a lock it can still be opened without opening the lock and then closed back. So if you have high price stuff or just want to be sure your stuff is safe then the best route is a hard case with clamps like a Samsonite Suite Case. Yes iit is ture that TSA may have some bad apples but when some thing turns up missing don’t blame TSA off the bat, They are do their job under constant surveillance to protect their selves and you. And no I am not TSA employee, I am an open minded person thats all.
Yesterday afternoon, I flew from Houston to Denver. Bright red TSA-approved locks were on my checked bag’s two biggest zipper compartments . When I got home, I saw that the bag sported only one lock.
Is it possible that I didn’t snap one lock completely and that it opened fell off in transit? Yes. Is it possible that the small bottle of tequila in a sturdy little cardboard box given to all somehow fell out of the middle of my bag? Unlikely. It could have been a TSA person or perhaps a baggage handler, or for all I know, a space alien who likes tequila and used its super powers to find mine.
A screener at Newark International was recently arrested for trying to sell pilfered items on eBay. I’m not saying that my little tequila, given to convention attendees, will end up in an on-line auction, but I’ll bet it ends up in someone’s drink.
Am I going to report it to the TSA?. No. Why bother? The TSA is the gift that keeps on taking.
Claire @ http://travel-babel.blogspot.com
When I moved back home from college in 03 I shipped all my big and obviously valuable stuff home as I had a tendancy to be flagged for searches (flying out of JFK to Tampa on one way tickets that I somehow always ending up having to change will do that to a girl). The only thing I had in my suitcases were my clothes.
Knew my stuff had been searched so when everying in the suitcase was all moved around I didn’t blink. But somehow 2 pairs of blue jeans and the new $200.00 shoes I got as a graduation gift evaporated. ::sigh::
Well, I am glad to see that few people have since entered their TSA condemning stories here since my last post.
A few facts.
Yes, I am an employee of TSA.
Yes, I am aware of some idiots getting caught stealing.
No, I do not believe any amount of back ground checks or previous history can determine who may get stupid and risk everything for a piece of jewelry, small electronic item or even inexpensive bottle of cologne.
as for comments since my last . . . Did someone miss some key points made? Seriously folks . . . TSA personnel check baggage within the presence of other personnel, in areas with cameras and in areas where they cannot easily conceal any taken items, and again very few bags are actually opened.
I suggest you go to YouTube and search “open locked baggage” or alike and see how easy it is to open ANY locked bag, regardless of the type of bag or lock used. Now consider again that The airline personnel, you know, those guys and gals that have had to endure countless wage and schedule cuts due to airline woes have your bag both before and after TSA does . . . often in areas without cameras, without other employees present and sometimes for hours at a time. Their employees do not get the back ground checks, constant supervision or federal oversight that TSA employees get daily . . .
No, I am not saying all items “stolen” are taken by airline employees. I am saying that TSA employees should be those last on your suspicion lists.
Actually, I dont believe most missing items are stolen at all . . . they are lost, misplaced or forgotten.
I went to an auction at MIA in 2006 and watched as over 400 items were auctioned off that were merely never claimed. From $20 watches up to very expensive laptops . . . by the way, it was the airport/counties auction, not TSA’s. TSA only takes possession of items left at the Security Check Point briefly before entering them into a costly Lost & Found inventory.
Oh, and I would like to comment on our new “costumes”. We, the TSA employees did not ask for them, do not feel that we needed them and quite frankly feel no different about how we are perceived since putting them on. That was some HQ guys with their hands in the pockets of VF Solutions, the uniform provider, that decided we needed our second new uniform issuance in four years (third through 6 yrs) and then tried to pass off the decision as a moral booster since we cannot keep people within the agency . . . besides working for such great leaders in a now six year old but still very infantile organization, it’s hard to keep people interested in protecting a public that insults and belittles them on a daily basis . . .
If you are going to fly
“Fly Smart”
As an additional point, in the case in Elliot’s article, this was a few years ago, the TSA agents had been into many other things and were finally able to be accused in the theft of $200 from someone’s carryon stuff so the whole lot was fired and a whole new bunch hired and trained differently and better. Been great since then. They’re very nice now.
I have had some good experiences, to be honest. I was going to my family’s on a last minute emergency trip, and was frantic, to say the least. I completely left my laptop and other bag on the belt. I returned a while later, and the TSA agent recognized me, handed me my stuff back, and told me he hopes whatever is going on turns out alright. When I was younger, I left my video game systems. All returned. Of course, this shows I should tether everything I own to myself, but I was happy to get it al lback!
TSA Employees are rude uneducated people who thinks they’re Gods gift to terrorist protection. They are the lowly paid for a reason…ANYONE can be a TSA agent as long as they are not convicted criminals…but I suspect the majority of them are…and in the real world can’t find decent jobs. Give them a Federal status and they think they are hot shit…its very easy to put them in their place when they get rude…
@crashndburn-Sooo naive!!! Enjoy being brainwashed by our so called Gov. Fool…