Tumi & TSA
Lady Mens gave me a lovely new Tumi trolley bag to replace the very embarrassing (because broken) one I had.
The included combination lock looked funny, so I glanced at the instruction leaflet for the lock, wherein it says:
The Tumi combination lock is recognized by the TSA (Transportation Security Administration), and allows the TSA to open the lock using special access codes should the need arise for a security search. This lock can then be re-locked by the TSA with no damage to the lock or your bag.
WTF? I may be a bit naive sometimes, but is Tumi trying to tell me that they give a backdoor into my luggage to persons unknown to me? That these persons can open my luggage, rummage around, extract (or even worse, insert!) items into my luggage, and close the lot up without me noticing?
And I thought the Vorratsdatenspeicherung was bad enough…
That lock is going straight into the rubbish.
nic wrote on 21-Jun-08 at 10:52 am
An ex-TSA employé - now luggage handler - at El Dorado airport in Bogotá can insert a nice package of cocaine and his compinche at this end can take it out.
Unless, of course, customs are there first. Then you would have to explain to them about Tumi and the TSA.
Jan-Piet Mens wrote on 21-Jun-08 at 11:53 am
Exactly. That's what I mean by "insert" something into the luggage.
If customs gets there first, the passenger is sure to be screwed, because no way are they going to believe the TSA bull.
Jan-Piet Mens / Do the TSA people like sniffing dirty laundry? wrote on 08-Aug-08 at 4:32 pm
[...] bags weren't locked (private messages related to this had warned me). Some poor soul in Frankfurt found the locks of his expensive Samsonite suitcase [...]