This article should alert ALL air travelers to ALWAYS keep their bags and carry ons in sight. In Portland Oregon one of the federal airport screeners was videotaped stealing $1,300 from a woman's purse at a security checkpoint.
In this particular case, the main reason the PDX screener was found guilty is because the victim's husband was videotaping her at the check out point.
During heightened security alerts at all airports, frequently travelers are searched with metal detector wands while going through security checkpoints. It is certainly understandable WHY this is needed.
HOWEVER - when you are being wanded, kindly ask the airport screeners to bring your bags into your view WHILE you are being wanded. Last week this happened to me while in Providence Rhode Island. They chose to wand me at the security checkpoint, but when I asked them to bring my carry on bags over to where I was being wanded, they refused and two guards began to yell at me. They finished wanding me, but only after putting my bags through the screening machine a second time, with my carry on bags OUT OF MY VIEW.
Eventually they let me proceed to my gate, but they were not done with me yet.
They then sent three more security guards to then check my carry on bags and shoes minutes before I was to board the plane. They found nothing suspicious in any of my bags or shoes. They could not understand WHY I would insist that my carry on bags were in my view at all times.
This attitude by the security screeners jeopardizes the personal safety of your carry on bags. At the airport, you constantly hear an ongoing message about being responsible for your bags and not letting them out of your sight. I attempted to follow that advice, but was treated as a security risk by the guards.
You have every right to have your carry on bags in FULL VIEW while you are being searched or wanded by security screeners. Insist on this, or you may wind up having items or cash stolen from your carry on bag like this woman in Portland. Imagine if you had a carry on bag with a business laptop containing thousands of dollars of private company data?
June 4, 2003
KATU News
PORTLAND - A federal airport screener at Portland International Airport is on unpaid leave after being accused of taking $1,300 in cash from a woman's purse last month at a security checkpoint.
Thirteen crumpled $100 bills were found in a garbage can near the checkpoint after the woman discovered the money was missing.
The passenger, 39-year old Leonora Usi of Aloha, said she has a video her husband took as she passed through airport security.