TSA Screeners Check Luggage, Investigate Your Marriage & Personal Finances

[CreekDog]

...During the inspection of her bag, the screener came across a deposit slip and seven checks made out to her and her husband, worth about $8,000.

That's when the police got involved, as the TSA screener was joined by to city cops and at least four TSA officers. The woman was eventually told the police had been notified because the checks were numbered sequentially, a claim she denies.

...

But the police continued to attempt to make contact with her husband. When they finally did, they told him they'd suspected "a divorce situation" and that she was trying to empty their bank account. She wasn't.

A rep for the police dept. defends the TSA, saying they were right to contact the officers because the check numbers were "almost sequential... just checking to make sure there was nothing fraudulent."

http://consumerist.com/2010/08/tsa-screeners-check-luggage-call-your-husband-to-discuss-your-personal-finances.html
-----------------------

This is not the first time we've heard about TSA conducting these "fishing expeditions".

Someone should be fired.

[Vincardog]

1. Someone should be fired.

[seabeyond]

2. perfectly fine. as long as they are keeping all of us safe, and wives in check.... nt

[Starry Messenger]

3. wtf.

What's next? We need written permission from our menfolk to travel??

[CreekDog]

5. i'll put in a good word for you, on behalf of all males

:hide:

[Starry Messenger]

7. Tell them I get to wear shoes!

:D

[CreekDog]

8. we'll see

:dilemma:

[Starry Messenger]

15. Dang it.

I gotta step up the casserole production. x(

[CreekDog]

16. Look, I haven't decided yet

but that won't hurt. :D

[madinmaryland]

9. Huh? You are speaking for "us"??? I thought you were a female.

:wtf:

:hi:

[jberryhill]

6. Oh don't be silly

As long as women have an escort and the travel is for necessary purposes - like buying groceries - there is no problem.

[BlueIris]

22. The police state exists to perpetuate itself.

TSA is just another tentacle.

[monmouth]

4. Even if the woman was cleaning out the bank account, what the

hell business is it of the TSA??? I mean, really..

[Sherman A1]

11. Precisely

[malaise]

18. That is my question too

Note to self - leave your fugging cheque book at home.

[marmar]

25. Reason 1,345 to avoid flying.

nt

[WhiteTara]

30. indeed. n/t

[Supply Side Jesus]

10. 4th admen....

would never have stood up in court

[krabigirl]

12. wtf...

[bluestateguy]

13. I could have told you this would have happened 8 years ago

That instead of protecting passengers from terrorism, TSA agents would spend the bulk of their time confiscating drugs and otherwise sticking their nose into things that are none of their business.

On the other hand, I'll be dammed if we should ever bring back the incompetent losers from private security companies.

[hlthe2b]

14. SOB's.... somehow I doubt they wouild have done the same...

if it had been the male side of the marriage equation. What next? Will they call the husband to make sure the wife has permission to travel? Sound familiar? It should.

Yes. They should be fired.

[Ignis]

17. This is beyond the pale. Abuse of authority is not a liberal value.

At least, not outside DU.

[QC]

24. !

[nashville_brook]

27. blahahahaha!

:spank:

[customerserviceguy]

19. Jackbooted thugs

who have zero chance of catching a real terrorist, so they take their frustrations out on ordinary Americans.

I still remember the hassle I got over a five pound sack of Snoqualmie Falls pancake mix in my backpack. I'm a middle aged guy who would never be mistaken for a terrorist, but they had some extra time on their hands when I went through security in the Portland, OR airport about a month ago.

Speaking of which, the reason I didn't put the pancake mix in my check-in luggage was because my lady and I had four suitcases full of Northwest wine and beer. The wine suitcases were undisturbed (except for that friendly little "we looked through your dirty underwear" card) but each bottle in the beer suitcase had been unwrapped and rewrapped by some jack boot who couldn't figure out that a guy who liked NW wine also liked NW beer.

How did I know? Well, I use a loose wrapping of five different shopping bags to create an air cushion around the bottles, this dipweed had rebagged them using a twisting motion at the top of the bag (that I've never used) on each of sixty bags in that suitcase. You'd think by now that they had computerized access to an FBI file that told them that was my normal M.O. when coming back to Newark from Portland.

Too much time, indeed...

[Gold Metal Flake]

20. I bet they were pissed it was checks.

If it were 8K in cahs they could have stolen it via Reagan-era asset forfeture laws. Fer the War-On-Drugs, donchaknow.

[Gormy Cuss]

21. TSA are not LEOs and it's about time they stopped being tasked to act like them.

Unless the checks were made out to Acme Plane Bombing supplies it's none of their damn business.

A shout out to all of your morans who defend the TSA screening in its current form: the TSA isn't making us any safer by having passengers remove shoes and throw away water bottles.

YOU can line up for full body electronic strip searches, but the limitations of such a scan are well known to those who want to blow stuff up. Cavities aren't visible,except maybe the ones on your teeth if you happen to be smiling when you get scanned.


eta: This is priceless -- linked at the same page. Airport SECURITY supervisor pleads guilty to stealing stuff from luggage. I'm shocked!:sarcasm:
http://consumerist.com/2010/08/sea-tac-security-supervisor-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-20k-worth-of-stuff-from-luggage.html

[havocmom]

23. TSA means

Totally Screwing Americans?

[Gormy Cuss]

28. Better than Thousands Standing Around.

I don't diss the TSA workers who are doing their best, but the mission creep is, well, creepy.

[JBoy]

26. WTF does that have to do with transportation safety?

[The Backlash Cometh]

29. This is the most outrageous thing I've heard in a long time.

But only because of the pro-activity of a law enforcement agency on someone who had no choice but to walk through airport security. Now, if, say, the State Attorney's Office were to use that kind of hound-dog investigation on actual cases, we might be on to something.

[tallahasseedem]

31. This is ridiculous...

they also like to inspect my underwear, but that's for a different day.

[Stinky The Clown]

32. When you give up freedom for "security" this is what you get.

I can't describe how much I detest the TSA and the rotten, Nazi motherfuckers who created it.

[Alcibiades]

33. I know someone at the DoJ who always has TSA problems

They travel on court business a lot, and whenever they use their official ID, they would always get additional screening, because the TSA always wanted to know if they had a weapon, even though that's not in this person's job description, most of the time. So they stopped using the DoJ ID, and used their driver's license instead.

All was fine, until one day they were traveling with some court documents:

TSA: What are these?

DoJ employee: Court documents.

TSA: They've got terrorist stuff all over them.

DoJ employee: That's because they are on a terrorism case I'm working on. Actually, you're not supposed to be reading them. You can screen them for security purposes, but these are sensitive documents and you're not cleared to actually read them. Here's my federal ID. I'm going to have to ask you to give them back, please.

TSA: We have to read them, this is a security issue.

DoJ employee: Here is the number of the federal court, on whose behest I am traveling. You need to call the judge and talk to them if you want to look at these documents, but I'm not authorized to allow that.

And so on. Naturally, they didn't call the judge, and let them go on their way. The only thing is now, no matter what ID they use, this federal employee is always set aside for additional screening. If that's how the TSA treats Department of Justice employees traveling on court business, is anyone surprised at how they treat regular Americans?

[tallahasseedem]

34. "terrorist stuff"

My oh my.

[Alcibiades]

36. That may not be verbatim

But it was something along those lines. Apparently their attention was attracted simply because a lot of Arabic names were in the documents, documents that also had official markings and "sensitive" stamped on them in red ink. In the possession of someone with a legitimate DoJ ID.

Fucking crazy.

[derby378]

35. The whole damn TSA should be fired

They're keeping pictures of your unclothed torsos from those full-body scanners, y'know.

I don't trust them any more than they trust me, which is not at all.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

37. Try carrying classified materail via airports that do not normally see it.

Stories some friends are telling these days.

[progressoid]

38. Good lord

:banghead:

[TK421]

39. I thought they just screened peoples junk?

[pscot]

40. Wear shades to prevent retinal imaging,

And don't run. The cameras notice rapid movement.