How to avoid theft by TSA agents
TSA agents are known for stealing valuable things from passengers' luggage, either checked in or carried on. Is there way to avoid this? If so, what is the best way?
Best Answer
This is a little tongue-in-cheek, but if you really have something valuable that you need to take with you pack it with a firearm. Firearms are locked with personal locks. They may ask to inspect it with you present, but then you put your own locks on it. The other advantage is when you arrive at your destination an employee will bring the gun case to you. They also check your ID to make sure you're the proper owner of the firearm.
This would work in the US, but if your traveling overseas it might not be an option.
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How do I stop TSA from stealing?
These Tips Can Help You Travel Safely with Valuables, and Ensure Your Expensive Gear Doesn't DisappearDoes TSA ever steal?
TSA screeners steal from passengers at checkpoints. One TSA screener even stole a CNN camera and sold it on eBay (he got caught because he forgot to remove the CNN stickers first). Baggage handlers steal from checked bags. oneworld's head of finance allegedly stole $2.2 million.How much does TSA steal?
Since 2002, TSA has fired more than 500 officers for alleged theft. Between 2010 and 2014, the TSA received more than 30,000 claims for missing valuables. Most of those claims were for items packed in checked luggage. The total property loss claimed was valued at about $2.5 million.Do baggage handlers steal?
1. They probably won't steal from you. Miami-Dade police recently set up hidden cameras to keep an eye on airport workers and managed to catch a few handlers rummaging through bags and pocketing valuables that they found. These crooks give a bad name to honest baggage handlers, but thankfully theft isn't very common.10 WORST TSA Line Mistakes | (Airport Security Tips for 2022)
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Answer 2
Run a cable through all your valuables so the thief has to take all of them as one large bulky unit. That will make it too obvious. Put self adhesive eyelets on your cell phone, laptop, camera, etc. and run a cable so they are all connected. I had TSA steal my ipod before and the other agents covered for him. No more.
Answer 3
I posted this image before of an airport employee trying hard and failing to get into a gate checked bag:
So if you use a Pelican bag (this was a Pelican 1514) with TamperSeal hasps, it's pretty much a given noone will be able to casually open the bag and casually take this or that out. Not even with a hammer and a chisel or such, as visible :D The imaginary scene where a TSA employee uses an angle grinder at the checkpoint to get inside a bag is a matter of CollegeHumor videos, not reality.
Of course this is just for carry on, if you check it in the TSA has master keys and can open it and then casually forget to lock them back which causes the hasps to get lost which happened to me -- but still this is your best bet if you need to check in something valuable.
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Images: Yan Krukov, Yan Krukov, RODNAE Productions, Yan Krukov