Air port security - "stripping" and removing valuables (Jewelry/watches/etc) - do things disappear?

Thread Starter

RogueRose

Joined Oct 10, 2014
375
Have you ever seen the pick pockets that take someones watch while they are talking to them and put it on the persons other hand, without the owner knowing? Or the bump and grab with the wallet, billfold, etc. These people are magicians and are amazing (I'm still on the fence as to whether it is real).

I was at the airport and a guy some ways in front of me was really upset he had to take off his watch and then allow it to disappear through a machine for an unknown period of time, all while he could not watch the monitors. He made comments about it being very expensive and why couldn't he carry it on him and do an additional "hand/wand" scan.

I felt kind of the same way with my wallet going through, you know, where cash, ID and credit cards are kept. They even want the passport to go through. It's like virtually stripping of all possessions. This is ridiculous that they haven't figured out better methods.

They can supposedly tell the difference between ground coffee and marijuana of similar density by Xray only! lol. At least that is what those border patrol shows try to make you believe. This is done with a low resolution monitor (not 4K or anything). Considering they are both organic with some molecules being very similar and with almost identical densities. I find it totally unbelievalbe they can do this with xrays and human eyes.

Then there are probably millions of products of various shapes and sizes and you can't tell me that they can detect these from a non-distinct outline while moving at about 1 ft per second. So I have a hard time believing they can detect a modified cell phone, alarm, or whatever.

I'd be afraid that a valuable would be missing or switched out with something else and how can it be proven what was originally placed in the machine.

"Hey, I put in a $30,000 Omega Chrono Negro and you give me this Fossil Surfer Black!?"

Does anyone else have concerns about his, or other issues with TSA besides the obvious issue of getting "1/2 undressed...."
 

Kermit2

Joined Feb 5, 2010
4,162
Are you wondering how the X-ray machine works?
It involves electronical thingys, but we can't help you with that. We're just a general forum for bitching and ranting about life's little upsets. :)
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
Have you ever seen the pick pockets that take someones watch while they are talking to them and put it on the persons other hand, without the owner knowing? Or the bump and grab with the wallet, billfold, etc. These people are magicians and are amazing (I'm still on the fence as to whether it is real).

I was at the airport and a guy some ways in front of me was really upset he had to take off his watch and then allow it to disappear through a machine for an unknown period of time, all while he could not watch the monitors. He made comments about it being very expensive and why couldn't he carry it on him and do an additional "hand/wand" scan.

I felt kind of the same way with my wallet going through, you know, where cash, ID and credit cards are kept. They even want the passport to go through. It's like virtually stripping of all possessions. This is ridiculous that they haven't figured out better methods.

They can supposedly tell the difference between ground coffee and marijuana of similar density by Xray only! lol. At least that is what those border patrol shows try to make you believe. This is done with a low resolution monitor (not 4K or anything). Considering they are both organic with some molecules being very similar and with almost identical densities. I find it totally unbelievalbe they can do this with xrays and human eyes.

Then there are probably millions of products of various shapes and sizes and you can't tell me that they can detect these from a non-distinct outline while moving at about 1 ft per second. So I have a hard time believing they can detect a modified cell phone, alarm, or whatever.

I'd be afraid that a valuable would be missing or switched out with something else and how can it be proven what was originally placed in the machine.

"Hey, I put in a $30,000 Omega Chrono Negro and you give me this Fossil Surfer Black!?"

Does anyone else have concerns about his, or other issues with TSA besides the obvious issue of getting "1/2 undressed...."
I have a simple solution:
  1. Don't fly
  2. If you must fly, don't carry anything valuable
 

Kermit2

Joined Feb 5, 2010
4,162
About 15 years ago I worked for a company doing digital cinema installations. Many handtools were lost to airport search.
The problem was solved by shipping our things via FedEx to the hotel we were staying in.

As the doctor told his patient, "if it hurts when you do that, don't do it".
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
I have a simple solution:
  1. Don't fly
  2. If you must fly, don't carry anything valuable
Why should I leave my valuable watch collection at home? The only reason I pay dozens of dollars for a watch is to make other superficial assholes look at me and think, gee, what a cool guy, he is wearing a XXX watch that is worth a fortune. If I leave it at home, what is the point of owning these useless things? It would be so much easier to look at my phone.

Here is my most valuable watch, and the last one I bought...

image.jpg
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
Here is my most valuable watch, and the last one I bought...
I have a Casio that is almost identical to that. I like the simplicity of it. Big time display, day, date, nothing else.
I was at the airport and a guy some ways in front of me was really upset he had to take off his watch and then allow it to disappear through a machine
You have a lot more to worry about than your watch.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/ts...ing-transport-kilos-cocaine-airport-security/
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/tsa-agent-lured-woman-bathroom-security-search-molested/
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/72-homeland-security-employees-terror-watch-list-tsa-95-fail-rate/
https://reason.com/blog/2016/01/21/dea-promised-tsa-agent-a-cut-of-passenge
https://reason.com/blog/2016/07/18/almost-half-of-all-tsa-employees-commit
 

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OBW0549

Joined Mar 2, 2015
3,566
I no longer fly unless I absolutely have to.

Flying used to be enjoyable (or at least non-annoying) back in the 60's, when security was a lot looser; but then Yassir Arafat and his associates started hijacking airplanes and doing unpleasant stuff to the planes and/or the passengers, and things tightened up in a hurry. Then came 9/11 and the Kafka-esque absurdities of all the TSA security procedures, and finally Richard Reid (the "Shoe Bomber"), to whom we owe our thanks for that stupid "take-off-your-shoes" routine. (It's to the credit of the TSA, though, that they don't force us to take off our skivvies, too, as a result of "Underwear Bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's shenanigans. Some of the security bureaucrats probably considered it, though.)

Phooey on all that. I've only flown once in the last 15 years, and the security routine certainly was annoying. (So was the plane ride, which meant sitting for 5 hours crammed into a tiny seat with no elbow or leg room, sandwiched between two old geezers who wouldn't STFU.)

I'm lucky (and probably crazy) in that I really enjoy long-distance driving, at least once I've escaped the madness of the East Coast and its insane traffic. Once past the Ohio River, things thin out and mellow out considerably and it's possible to relax a bit. I just got back from a coast-to-coast run to visit my brother in Denver and then my son out in Silicon Valley, and I enjoyed every minute of it-- even going across Kansas. This country is simply immense. And fascinating.

Flying is for the birds. I'll just drive, thankyouverymuch.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
DISCLAIMER: My click of the "like" button for Post 10 does not mean I like what the TSA is doing in post #10, I only like that @#12 made us aware of it.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
So I have a hard time believing they can detect a modified cell phone, alarm, or whatever.
They can't. Test challenges have shown that the TSA misses something like 95% of items they should catch. I guess they're too busy watching for jewelry they can lift. Most of TSA's role is to put on a show and pretend.
 

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
They can't. Test challenges have shown that the TSA misses something like 95% of items they should catch. I guess they're too busy watching for jewelry they can lift. Most of TSA's role is to put on a show and pretend.
With a 95% failure rate, you can only call it, "Security Theater".
More laws, more government intrusion, more money wasted, more flights delayed/missed/cancelled, more cash and property stolen, more drugs smuggled, more customers groped (some of them raped), more citizens arrested/threatened/intimidated/turned into convicted felons for normal behavior...
Please give me more government, sir. I want to forfeit my rights so you can make me feel secure.:)
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
With a 95% failure rate, you can only call it, "Security Theater".
More laws, more government intrusion, more money wasted, more flights delayed/missed/cancelled, more cash and property stolen, more drugs smuggled, more customers groped (some of them raped), more citizens arrested/threatened/intimidated/turned into convicted felons for normal behavior...
Please give me more government, sir. I want to forfeit my rights so you can make me feel secure.:)
But the starting pay is so good, why don't they attract better people?

As of January 2013, D-banded TSOs receive annual salaries of between $25,518 and $38,277, while E-banded officers are paid between $29,302 and $44,007.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
With a 95% failure rate, you can only call it, "Security Theater".
More laws, more government intrusion, more money wasted, more flights delayed/missed/cancelled, more cash and property stolen, more drugs smuggled, more customers groped (some of them raped), more citizens arrested/threatened/intimidated/turned into convicted felons for normal behavior...
Please give me more government, sir. I want to forfeit my rights so you can make me feel secure.:)
Traveling abroad shows what a joke security is in the whole system. To a large degree airline security deep depends on the weakest point in the system. I've gotten on planes in Istanbul, Bucharest, Hanoi and other "exotic" places. I can recall being ushered around metal detectors by the security people, to speed up the line. They'd get mad if you tried to walk through the machine, because you couldn't understand their instructions, and thought it wise to not avoid the screening. No shoe removal, no taking computers out, none of that nonsense. Barely any screening whatsoever, except maybe profiling by a sleepy and overworked agent, in most places I can recall. A few hours later we're all at O'Hare, ready to board planes to anywhere in the country.
 

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Traveling abroad shows what a joke security is in the whole system. To a large degree airline security deep depends on the weakest point in the system. I've gotten on planes in Istanbul, Bucharest, Hanoi and other "exotic" places. I can recall being ushered around metal detectors by the security people, to speed up the line. They'd get mad if you tried to walk through the machine, because you couldn't understand their instructions, and thought it wise to not avoid the screening. No shoe removal, no taking computers out, none of that nonsense. Barely any screening whatsoever, except maybe profiling by a sleepy and overworked agent, in most places I can recall. A few hours later we're all at O'Hare, ready to board planes to anywhere in the country.
Now, on arrival into the US, you exit US Customs with your checked baggage in the non-secure area and have to go through screening again in the US to get back into the Secure area.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
Now, on arrival into the US, you exit US Customs with your checked baggage in the non-secure area and have to go through screening again in the US to get back into the Secure area.
I figured things would have changed by now. It was such an obvious flaw.
 
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