Rats/rust/TSA

whitty

whitty

Dealer / Materials Provider
Joined
Aug 25, 2005
Messages
6,002
So I gave my business partner an Izula when I got back from the Blade Show. My way of thanking him for covering me on Friday. He was stoked and loved the knife. He took a trip with the family to Jamaica this past week and did some diving, along with other vacation type things. He talked to me about taking his Izula with him and using it as his dive knife, his concern was rust. I told him about previous rust post on the forum and said, "the hell with it, take the knife, if it rust badly I will get you a new one". I told him not to clean it and to beat it up as much as possible. He followed my instructions. He was gone a week, the first 4 days he did some diving and took the Izula everytime. The rest of the week he had his family duties to comply with. He never cleaned the Izula and put it back in his suitcase to go home. As of Sunday it was still 99.9% rust free, outside of one little spot on the tip of the blade.

He got home and went to get his Izula out of the suit case and it was not there. He knows 100% he packed it, but it was gone. It left his suitcase along with several other stupid little items. He believes, and I concur, it had to be the TSA's. Hated it for the sake of the experiment.

Now before anyone decides to pony up and send me a free Izula (I know how freakin nice you guys are), do not fret, I have several and gave him another. It was the least I could do. He has to cover me next month for my 10 day trip to the same resort.

I will do the experiment again but ship the damn knife home. :D

Whitty
 
That sucks dude. I'm afraid to travel with any of my knives in my check in bags for fear of losing them like that. Good luck on your upcoming experiment though.

Les.
 
Never lost one of mine, but I always put them in a box and tape the box shut. And I let the TSA folks know there's a knife in there, so if it goes missing then I know who to complain to.
 
We usually give away free ones to TSA so they will leave ours alone! :D
 
TSA "Restricted" Keys are a TOTAL JOKE. I can tell you for a fact that baggage handlers can open those "TSA Approved" padlocks very, very easily. It will leave the telltale red color in the window that the combination lock has been bypassed by the TSA "Restricted" Key, but the stuff will still be gone. That's not to say that TSA don't steal, I reckon some of them do, but it doesn't have to be them, anyone with access and a little knowledge can make a working key incredibly easy.
 
Wowzers, most all of my travels are fairly local, never been on a bigg passenger plane. Things like this make me not want to ither.
 
Ah, the good 'ol TSA. The finest security personnel that minimum wage can buy. It's ridiculous how commonplace checked-luggage thievery is these days. Whenever somebody steals something of yours outside of an airport, it's a crime. When somebody steals out of your checked luggage, it's business as usual. To be fair, it's not necessarily the TSA who stole that particular knife. It was likely the baggage handlers in Jamaica. It's pretty convenient for thieves when their victims only realize they've been stolen from when they arrive in a different country. Sickening, but not surprising.
 
You have to remember that the TSA isn't the only people that have access to your luggage. There are many baggage handlers that touch your luggage once it goes behind the magic curtain. Very high chance it was them and not the TSA.
 
Do you think Transportation Security Administration Employees employed as uniformed security screeners make "minimum wage?"

Those positions in the private security industry pre - September 11, 2001 were minimum wage positions and you had to beg to go take a piss.

They have federal benefits now and I'm sure they kept some of the morons that showed up to work on time. We still have EOE, after all, don't we? The starting pay for someone just out of high school that doesn't know shit about the security industry at all is over $10.00 an hour and it goes up from there.
 
Grizzly Adam said:
You have to remember that the TSA isn't the only people that have access to your luggage. There are many baggage handlers that touch your luggage once it goes behind the magic curtain. Very high chance it was them and not the TSA.
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Correct. Like I said, the TSA Approved locks are a TOTAL JOKE, fact, not fiction.
 
This type of story is why I am nervous about traveling with a handgun in checked bagage :grumpy: (although not many other choices when travelling by air - short of shipping ahead). Anyone else have these concerns? Any good ideas?

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Certified R.A.T. Packer #59
 
I use colored zip ties instead of a travel lock so I know if my bags have been opened. Anything valuable that I have in my checked bags gets padlocked (with a real lock, not the TSA approved junk) to the actual frame at the bottom of my suitcase. Keeps people honest. Hope this helps.
 
If you use the "TSA Approved" mini-combination locks, you will be able to tell when the padlock was opened by anyone using a key or some type of device to manipulate it open or otherwise duplicate a real key. The green indicator in the window will turn red when your combination has been bypassed by using a key or other device in the keyway. So, using those padlocks, you would be able to tell that your luggage was open unless:

1. They have your combination and can open it that way which bypasses the "notification feature" of the green/red indicator window. That means you opened it somewhere and they were shoulder surfing and remembered your combination, etc.

2. They have decoded the combination lock which is not impossible to do but more time consuming than picking it or using a hand cut key or stolen TSA Key. Decoding and obtaining the combination would also bypass the green/red notification window/feature.

3. You didn't turn the combination dials and they lucked out and pulled on the shackle and it was open. Happens a lot with padlocks. Obviously, the window will stay green on this as well.

Your idea of padlocking anything to the frame of the suitcase is novel as long as they can tell what it is without having to open something else up in which case your luggage might be disposed of by them and a robot with a .12 Ga. Shotgun. They won't pay you for your woes, either. :)
 
Sasnakra said:
This type of story is why I am nervous about traveling with a handgun in checked bagage :grumpy: (although not many other choices when travelling by air - short of shipping ahead). Anyone else have these concerns? Any good ideas?

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Certified R.A.T. Packer #59
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Actually, a piece of luggage with a gun in it is probably the safest bag in the system. Your gun has to be inside a TSA approved, locking case, (inside your bag) but that's it. You declare your gun to the person at the ticket counter, and they give you a big red tag to put on your luggage. You hand the bag over to the TSA guy at the checked-baggage X-ray machine- and they take extra-special care to make sure nobody messes with it. Your bag comes out on the other end with the other "special luggage"- ie, oversized items, pets etc. I've done it a couple times, and it's no problem. The only hassle is that the TSA-approved cases are expensive- mine was over $100, IIRC.
 
Sucks to hear dude. I fly regularly and these things happen. I would suggest that you don't leave valuable items on top or easily visible in your checked baggage.

As far as TSA is concerned I would bet that it was the local baggage handlers that took it. I have noticed it is very popular for bags to be wrapped with shrink wrap if they are traveling through questionable locals. You might look into this.
 
moonwilson said:
The only hassle is that the TSA-approved cases are expensive- mine was over $100, IIRC.
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Do you have a link to the one you purchased and can you send me pictures of your's if it has an integral lock OR the "approved" lock you are using?
 
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