Never Check Anything Valuable With your Luggage

[Ping898]

http://cbs13.com/seenon/local_story_122010347.html

Another reason never to check anything valuable with your baggage...
Almost seems worse if they stole from a kid...
Though I have never had anything stolen from my luggage, I have had it rifled through with no tag that it had been opened left....

A Sacramento boy returned from a family trip to discover his birthday money was missing from his luggage. When he and his mom struggled with airport security, they called Kurtis Ming.

After a birthday trip to San Diego, 12-year-old Jeffery Martin flew home from San Diego a couple hundred bucks richer. He thought his wallet with the $265 bucks in birthday money would be safe inside a bag he checked.

“I had one hundred, three fifties, one ten, and five ones,” he says.

“We got home he was excited to open it up and show me all his birthday money. He brought it in and opened it up and it was just like it had been ransacked,” says Jeffery’s mom Kim.

It was money he planned to use toward his next trip this summer.

Jeffery said everything had been moved around in his bag. The inside zipper was left open, and he claims there was no inspection tag left. Kim called Southwest. She followed their recommendation, calling the TSA baggage supervisor in San Diego.

“Can't we just check the video, can't we just check the camera I mean I can describe the suitcase it had a yellow ribbon on it, she says we don't have camera's back there,” says Kim.

 

[MJS]

Its a shame that people have to stoop so low, as to steal things from luggage. I still lock my suitcases when I travel. If they were to find something 'suspicious' in my bag, which they shouldn't, go ahead and open it. I'm still in the area when they put my bags thru the scanner, so if it needed to be opened, I'm right there anyway. If they need to open a bag, it should be done with the owner present.

 

[bluemtn]

That just lets me know that my thinking about air travel is right. Have a suitcase for clothes only, and have a carry on for almost everything else. I've also always locked my suitcase, with approved locks, and wouldn't leave sight of bags until they were ready to be placed. You can never be too cautious, and unfortunately there are *******s like that out there that would do such a thing.

 

[Kacey]

I've had mine inspected once or twice - but a tag was left in it. I use a padlock that is TSA approved, meaning they can open it - but it makes it a lot harder to claim it "fell open", as happened to a friend of mine. I also don't send anything through I'm not willing to lose.

 

[Obliquity]

Every cigar enthusiast knows, always carry-on anything valuable -- like expensive cigars. Prior to the new regulations, spendy lighters were getting ripped-off left and right.

Not every baggage handler is a filthy goon -- just several of them.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I refuse to fly anywhere. My gear is safer that way. Hell, it's only 40 hours coast to coast to drive, and we've got a fuel efficient vehicle. Too many crooks working the inspection stations, and all that.

 

[MA-Caver]

Drunken pilots, terrorist and thieves oh my! Is air travel ever going to be safe?
Having anything ripped off from you is still like a direct violation of yourself.

And they say that air travel is the safest means.

 

[MBuzzy]

I have never had anything stolen, luckily...but I have had many bags damaged, zippers torn off, my stuff coming back in a bag with my luggage, and had it lost 3 times so far.

When I deployed, I took a weapons case with my two weapons in it. They didn't inspect that, but they did inspect my suitcase with my clothes in it....But then again, when we got on the airplane to actually fly in to country, we were all carrying our guns and half our people had their knives confiscated because they were weapons....