TSA apologizes after family told wheelchair-bound daughter would get p

[Ryan]

Try leaving an unattended bag in WAS and see what happens.

 

[jis]

Couple of years back I watched in utter astonishment what happens when you leave a bag unattended at Gare du Nord in Paris (where the Eurostar to London and TGVs to North of France and Thalys to Holland, Belgium and Germany originate). I was waiting for a Eurostar upstairs and looked down on the main concourse. Saw a platoon of Police come in, clear and cordon off an area about 30' in diameter, then a curious looking robot rolled in, rolled upto the bag and blew it up in place. Within minutes everything was cleared including the junk left from the bag, and life was back to normal. I was impressed with the efficiency of it all!

 

[KrazyKoala]

Try leaving an unattended bag in WAS and see what happens.

Nothing happens. The police roll their eyes and say "Not this **** again." then poke around with whatever they were going for 5-10 more minutes before actually getting up and looking into it.

 

[SarahZ]

Sitting in CHI for so many hours waiting for the LSL recently, I cannot tell you how many times I heard the safety recording. Do not take anything onto the train given to you by someone else. This is just common sense, but people can be convinced to take something onto a plane for someone else? I would hope people would not do that on planes either.

Unfortunately, it could be pretty easy if you found the right person.

For example: I could wrap an Ace bandage around my wrist/hand and put my arm in a sling. Then, I could stand in the boarding line with my laptop bag, suitcase, and purse. I'd make sure I was near a person who looked super gullible and willing to help anyone at any time. Feigning pain/exhaustion and "struggling" with my bags, I would ask them if they wouldn't mind carrying my laptop bag, as I've been carrying this stuff all day and my wrist hurts SO badly. "Sure," they say, since I'm in line right behind them and it seems completely harmless (especially since I'm a white girl in a college sweatshirt, probably on her way home to visit her parents for Christmas).

A couple moments later, I could fake getting a phone call and say, "Oh my gosh. I'm sorry. I have to take this. I'll be right back." Then I'd step away from the line and hang out long enough for them to get to the front. Now they have a dilemma. They can either be mean to the injured college student and leave my laptop bag near the gate, which is doubly complex since now it looks like they're abandoning a random bag and someone might alert security about them, or they can carry the laptop bag onto the plane and wait for me. They'd glance at me, and I'd nod and give them the "be there in a sec" gesture, prompting them to carry it onto the plane and wait for me to board, which I never do. As soon as they walked into the jetway, I left the gate area, which means the gate agents won't be signaling for me to hurry up and board either. Wouldn't want that kind of attention, right?

Yeah, it's pretty sick that I could come up with that, and I promise I would never, ever do something like that. I guess I've just read too many crime books.

 

[Anderson]

Well, the "easy way out" on that would be for the person holding your bag to make a very loud point that this is her bag that they're giving you a hand with and wait for a few minutes (or to simply step aside in line, let others board, while patiently waiting for you to get off your phone call...and indeed, eventually politely nagging you to cut off the **** call because you'll miss your flight, which to me would actually be the polite thing to do since you're clearly an airheaded college student who's losing track of time while talking to a friend). Basically, I ignore your "be there in a sec" nod if not get out of line entirely.

And for what it's worth, I've got friends who can do far, far worse.

 

[SarahZ]

Well, the "easy way out" on that would be for the person holding your bag to make a very loud point that this is her bag that they're giving you a hand with and wait for a few minutes (or to simply step aside in line, let others board, while patiently waiting for you to get off your phone call...and indeed, eventually politely nagging you to cut off the **** call because you'll miss your flight, which to me would actually be the polite thing to do since you're clearly an airheaded college student who's losing track of time while talking to a friend). Basically, I ignore your "be there in a sec" nod if not get out of line entirely.
And for what it's worth, I've got friends who can do far, far worse.

Yeah, but somebody like my mom would rather get on the plane with it than cause a fuss or make me hold it again. That's what I meant by gullible and overly-nice. (I don't mean that as a slam against my mom; her sweet nature is endearing.)

Anyway, it was just an example and a lot of fun to write.