airport theft

zuckerman · Post by **zuckerman** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:40 am

Howdy,
On Monday, I got back from Anniston Al and the Olympic trials part 1, flew Delta, birmingham/atlanta/ madison. Picked up my bag at madison and found that someone had removed a GPS unit, an extra tin of pellets and a handful of change that was in the checked baggage. My pistol case was not opened or gone, thank goodness. No TSA paper in the bag. informed tsa and delta.
anybody else have theft loss?

Isabel1130 · Post by **Isabel1130** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:11 am

Shame to say it but you are more vulnerable to theft out of your baggage when you are on those flights with one or more connections. I don't know this for a fact but I have heard that dishonest baggage handlers target bags that come off one plane and go onto another during a connecting flight. With direct flights it is a little harder to pilfer because the theft can more easily be traced back to the baggage handlers or agents doing it. Most of them know better than to grab stuff with serial numbers on it, like an air pistol, because they know that will be reported to the police and bring the spotlight down on their system.
My guess, is that you lost the stuff in Atlanta. It was the middle leg and a big airport that a lot of stuff goes through.

zuckerman · Post by **zuckerman** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 11:55 am

Howdy, well, I have an old baggage tag from a flight without a pistol, and comparing it to the one from yesterday, I can see no one thing that may say "this has a pistol/firearm inside it." now that is not to say I can read computer barcode stuff, just that there is not repeatable code word/number that >I see< that may designate it to be carrying,and it may well be that computertalk is at work here, just letting tsa know of a pistol in flight, and probably after the fact. by this I mean there were at least 100 people flying into the Anniston Trials area with weapons that weekend, let alone the whole USA travel picture, so letting the tsa know of a firearm on a computer may not mean a lot, until something happens, then they can track/investigate what happened. but the guys in the baggage area would not necessarily have access to the computertalk, I would think they would only have access to hand held readers at best, as my guess anyway. their job is to move the stuff from one place to another, so their knowing what is inside is not needed. plus, a locked case inside a bag could mean anything to a thief...its just that the pistol case I have is fairly large and hard to hide going out of the airport employee door... I've flown before with a firearm, but into smaller airports to pass through, so you and I have the same thoughts about where it was stolen, atlanta would be my guess also...

peterz · Post by **peterz** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 3:40 pm

I had a four hour layover in a UK airport, the only stop in a transatlantic trip, and when I got my suitcase home in Virginia, I found that my electric shaver in its travel case had gone missing. A few years ago the small gold heart we gave our daughter when she was a toddler also went walkabout, never to return, in the very same airport. And once an entire suitcase was made to disappear.

It happens. It's unpleasant and frustrating, but it happens. And not just to guns.

Brian M · Post by **Brian M** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 3:49 pm

I went carry-on only about a decade ago (doesn't matter if it's a weekend pleasure trip, a week long business trip, or a multi-week vacation, 1 carry-on is all I use). Best solution I can think of with a firearm is to just use a Pelican/Storm/etc... by itself and carry-on the rest. I haven't needed to fly yet, but that's how I'll go about dealing with the headache when shipping ahead of time isn't an option.

zuckerman, sorry it happened to you. Sure wish that integrity were a common thing in the world still.

zuckerman · Post by **zuckerman** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 4:18 pm

howdy, just got home to yet another email from Delta/TSA (9 so far today).
This one is not only an apology, but includes the information that they are sending a check to cover the value of my lost goods...... amazing...

I am still writing both Delta/TSA ... if the stolen goods can go out of the airport, bad stuff can come into checked baggage via the same route....that more than anything else is my concern....

JamesH · Post by **JamesH** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 5:03 pm

I lost a nice pair of headphones from a soft bag flying UK->Australia

Within Australia it seems fairly random whether firearms will be held in the secure zone to be signed for or just put on the carousel.

Even in the secure zone they just hand them out to whoever asks.

j-team · Post by **j-team** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:40 am

In 1999 myself and two others lost:

2x Steyr LP1
2x FWB P34
1x FWB P30
1x Hammerli SP20
1x Walther OSP
1x Morini 84E

While transiting through LAX on our way home from Munich World Cup.

The 2 P34s were brand new, having been collected from FWB in Munich.

They were never recovered and obviously stolen by baggage handlers. They were in 3 seperate Pelican cases which were found 24 hours later, empty.

After the initial distress, once the insurance paid for all new pistols, we got over it!

Richard H · Post by **Richard H** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:41 pm

Brian M wrote:I went carry-on only about a decade ago (doesn't matter if it's a weekend pleasure trip, a week long business trip, or a multi-week vacation, 1 carry-on is all I use). Best solution I can think of with a firearm is to just use a Pelican/Storm/etc... by itself and carry-on the rest. I haven't needed to fly yet, but that's how I'll go about dealing with the headache when shipping ahead of time isn't an option.

zuckerman, sorry it happened to you. Sure wish that integrity were a common thing in the world still.

Sounds good but Guns and ammo have to be packed separate, and the bag with the ammo has to be checked too.

Theft at the airlines is nothing new, a few team members have actually lost rifles. The worst airport seems to be LAX, so much so I know many team members avoid it at all costs.

Freepistol · Post by **Freepistol** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:57 pm

j-team wrote:In 1999 myself and two others lost:

2x Steyr LP1
2x FWB P34
1x FWB P30
1x Hammerli SP20
1x Walther OSP
1x Morini 84E

While transiting through LAX on our way home from Munich World Cup.

The 2 P34s were brand new, having been collected from FWB in Munich.

They were never recovered and obviously stolen by baggage handlers. They were in 3 seperate Pelican cases which were found 24 hours later, empty.

After the initial distress, once the insurance paid for all new pistols, we got over it!

That's amazing that those thieves are allowed to work in that position. One would think the airlines would have security measures to catch unscrupulous scumbags.

Freepistol · Post by **Freepistol** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 4:10 pm

Richard H wrote:
Brian M wrote:I went carry-on only about a decade ago (doesn't matter if it's a weekend pleasure trip, a week long business trip, or a multi-week vacation, 1 carry-on is all I use). Best solution I can think of with a firearm is to just use a Pelican/Storm/etc... by itself and carry-on the rest. I haven't needed to fly yet, but that's how I'll go about dealing with the headache when shipping ahead of time isn't an option.

zuckerman, sorry it happened to you. Sure wish that integrity were a common thing in the world still.
Sounds good but Guns and ammo have to be packed separate, and the bag with the ammo has to be checked too.

Theft at the airlines is nothing new, a few team members have actually lost rifles. The worst airport seems to be LAX, so much so I know many team members avoid it at all costs.

If I read Brians post correctly, he decided to go one bag 10 yrs. ago, but hasn't flown since making that pronouncement. He hasn't tested his theory. I don't know how one could go on a week's business trip with only one carry on.

Spencer · Post by **Spencer** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 5:39 pm

Freepistol wrote:...I don't know how one could go on a week's business trip with only one carry on.

perhaps the advantage of holding the meetings at a a nudist colony?

Brian M · Post by **Brian M** » Wed Dec 07, 2011 8:08 pm

Spencer wrote:
Freepistol wrote:...I don't know how one could go on a week's business trip with only one carry on.
perhaps the advantage of holding the meetings at a a nudist colony?

heh, not quite. I was installing and servicing hotel Point Of Sale stuff at 4 and 5 start hotels, so suits were the norm. You just take advantage of on-site laundering.

With pleasure travel, I wash the important stuff myself in bathroom sinks and hit a fluff&fold (full service laundromat) about once a week for everything. I generally take about 20 unique combinations of clothes no matter the trip, all in 1 bag. Not even a Stuffed bag. Pack-it cubes and folders from Eagle Creek make a big difference. So do Aloksak bags.

As for firearms, reading through the info it sounds like you can check just a case, which is locked from the outside with non-TSA locks, so the whole case would have to go missing. I bet a BIG stink would go up if a firearm went missing en route, mostly because I'd be reporting it to media myself...

comwoaini · Post by **comwoaini** » Wed Mar 28, 2012 10:41 pm

its amazing that those thieves are allowed to work in that position.

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Misny · Post by **Misny** » Thu Mar 29, 2012 9:08 am

comwoaini wrote:its amazing that those thieves are allowed to work in that position.

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i love water.peace.beautiful girl and ....

The druggies have to find some way to pay for their habit. Apparently their day jobs can't cover their expenses. Drug testing employees must be expensive. I am guessing here, but it is probably cheaper to pay out theft losses than to test employees for the presence of drugs in their systems. Of course, even if an employer did find an employee that was regularly using drugs, his union would fight for a long time to keep him employed, because they would say that it is a disease that needs to be treated.