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Given that this seems to be such a common problem you'd think the airlines could send fake suitcases through the system with trackers and smart water and stuff on the goods inside.

Smart water? What does that do? Hydrate the thief?

The concept has been around since the 1960's for marking bins full of grain to prevent theft:

https://archive.macleans.ca/ar... [macleans.ca]

My guess would be that the airlines don't care because it's not them paying out. It will be people's travel insurance that covers the cost, and the insurance companies often don't pay out because the victim can't prove the items were in there.

Anything else than flying undercover tourists on real flights with their personal suitcase and honeypot items just means the criminals have to recruit the right accomplice like they already do (if you limit the operation to running a fake suitcase on the belt on ground, there will be several people who know in advance or can guess by watching things happening). Flying fake tourists costs immediately more than the full value of an occasional theft.

Flying fake tourists costs immediately more than the full value of an occasional theft.

Flying fake tourists costs immediately more than the full value of an occasional theft.

Huh? Just shove a few suitcases onto the belt where the check-in desks are. The rest is automatic.

Just shove a few suitcases onto the belt where the check-in desks are.

Just shove a few suitcases onto the belt where the check-in desks are.

My argument is: you will need accomplices at the desk to register fake bags, and other people near the airplane to remove the bags. Problems: 1) The thieves just need to hire one more accomplice at the desk so they know which days they need to be careful. 2) Luggage handlers are not from airline companies, the luggage company will have to be informed of which days and which luggage are going to be tested and need to be removed before flight; so the thieves will also figure it out, they just need to hire the

One has to wonder whether airline staff is quietly taking a raise they think they deserve...

Or at least some bits of Germany are. Old enough to f... old enough to vote - but not old enough to marry, as the age for marriage is tending to be raised to prevent 'child brides'.

Marriage makes sense though because it offers little benefit to a 16 year old. The benefits of marriage are things like inheritance rights, and even those are now largely available to non-married couples in long term relationships anyway. The protections for child brides outweigh what little marriage has to offer a 16 year old.

Sex is something 16 year olds engage in and it isn't good to criminalize that behaviour.

TSA 007 keys are available for purchase in amazon and other retailers.

With these, anyone can pop anyone's "TSA" locks and get into the bag without a struggle.

The way this racket has worked in the past is the screeners that X-Ray your bags tell their cronies which bags to be on the lookout for. The ones with cameras, etc. Then the bag gets pulled at some point before it goes on the container / baggage train, and relieved of its expensive burden. With TSA locks, no one will know. Before TSA locks, your zippers mysteriously broke, the latches on your Samsonite Silhouette would be mysteriously bent out of shape... etc.

Moral of the story: Nothing but clothes and maybe basic hand tools go in my checked bag. Everything else goes in my backpack.

TSA, another gift that keeps on giving. One more to pare down.

TSA locks seem like way too much hassle. TSA previously just used a pen on your zipper. Zippers were never designed to be security devices.

LOL talk about an American solution.

Never thought about that, but a really good idea to protect something valuable you have to check. And if it's oversized you can pack a rifle with it.

In theory, yes. In reality: https://youtu.be/Njlx2jazhnA [youtu.be] (Deviant Ollam youtube channel)

Pretty disturbing, I guess the moral of the story is alarm the case to punish them a bit should they try to open it without you, and travel with a few extra set of locks.

Should note that it doesn't have to be a real gun. A stater pistol that uses .22 blanks or even just a receiver or barrel, the parts that make a gun a "gun" but not actually dangerous in and of themselves are enough to trigger the protection. And not as likely to get you into trouble in foreign countries too.

I've know several photographers, pros and amateurs who used this trick to protect their gear.

Yep. An AR15 lower receiver is ideal. It gets your suitcase the special treatment it needs and isn't too big or likely to get you arrested anywhere.

https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]

Came to say the same thing. I have traveled with firearms more than once, and any other valuables go in the same case. The TSA is not allowed any access to a firearm case, and you have to lock it yourself.

I bought a camera in LA once and put the box in checked luggage with some pastries in it, took the camera on carry on. The box never made it and the police at the airport wouldn't deal with it. The camera was around $1500 so they could have gotten a felony charge out of it (just stealing the box would

TSA 007 keys are available for purchase in amazon and other retailers. With these, anyone can pop anyone's "TSA" locks and get into the bag without a struggle. The way this racket has worked in the past is the screeners that X-Ray your bags tell their cronies which bags to be on the lookout for. The ones with cameras, etc. Then the bag gets pulled at some point before it goes on the container / baggage train, and relieved of its expensive burden. With TSA locks, no one will know. Before TSA locks, your zippers mysteriously broke, the latches on your Samsonite Silhouette would be mysteriously bent out of shape... etc. Moral of the story: Nothing but clothes and maybe basic hand tools go in my checked bag. Everything else goes in my backpack. TSA, another gift that keeps on giving. One more to pare down.

TSA 007 keys are available for purchase in amazon and other retailers.

With these, anyone can pop anyone's "TSA" locks and get into the bag without a struggle.

The way this racket has worked in the past is the screeners that X-Ray your bags tell their cronies which bags to be on the lookout for. The ones with cameras, etc. Then the bag gets pulled at some point before it goes on the container / baggage train, and relieved of its expensive burden. With TSA locks, no one will know. Before TSA locks, your zippers mysteriously broke, the latches on your Samsonite Silhouette would be mysteriously bent out of shape... etc.

Moral of the story: Nothing but clothes and maybe basic hand tools go in my checked bag. Everything else goes in my backpack.

TSA, another gift that keeps on giving. One more to pare down.

Also they are so easily picked it's not funny. I had a bunch of padlocks I'd lost the key to. Bought a set of picks for the LoLz and within half an hour of learning the basics had all four padlocks off. But your other point, sticky fingered baggage handlers are why I don't put anything of value in checked luggage. It's mostly for clothes. If you ever need to transport anything securely, get a decent case. Something with no exposed zippers, rigid construction, non TSA locks, et al. I.E. not most luggage. E

Don't even need a key, if you know how to reset. Just a pointy thing is all you need. Set all dials to 0, push the shiny silver recessed button, slide the lever the other way you would when oening, then set your new combo.

Others have an A_B lever hidden somwhere. Set to 0, flip to B, set new number, set to A, done.

TSA locks are an absolutely pointless federal mandate. They stop no one but the most casual of thieves.

The case you're describing is Rimowa, and even those are still beset with TSA locks =o(

You don't even need a key. A cheap ball point pen can be used to open the zip on most cases.

If you get on nextdoor.com you'll hear about lots of crime.

Meh, people feel that way because a) the media tells them they live in a crime-ridden hellhole, or b) they actually do live in a crime-ridden hellhole. I've lived in such places. The nightly soundtrack was shots and sirens and the occasional car peeling out.

But for baggage thievery, that's been a thing before planes were a thing. That's not propaganda or paranoia, it's simply a fact.

Nextdoor, though, is the province of the Karen and the Chad, always silencing those who have opposing viewpoints to theirs.

ok, well San Jose in CA is constantly having catalytic converters stolen, car break ins, fires started in the back of trucks, all kinds of nonsense going on. Today I just checked and it's home invasion. There's a video of someone stealing a windchime. Fortunately light on reports of violence, but I can report firsthand that exists too. Of course this is still way better than what was going on in the 80s, but no one wants to return to that.

I have no idea how common these are, but it's just one small neighbor

ok? I'm not sure what your point is. Are you saying catalytic converter theft is not crime?

Except, of course, to drive a BEV

Or stop driving surburban assault vehicles.

Catalytic converters are easy to steal because the "enhanced ride height" makes it easy to get under a vehicle to take it - someone has to shimmy under the vehicle and cut it out, and it has to done in a couple of minutes.

If you drive a vehicle which rides more than a few inches off the ground, you're a prime target and it's time to clean out the garage.

Drive a normal car? The only way to get under that is put it on a stand or a li

I work a job with a lot of access. But it pays ok, I've had a bit of education and critical thinking training from school, and I'm not about to throw that away and do a stint in jail for a bit of extra cash. It's not some inherent morality built into me by God. It's reasoning. And if you put me against the wall the same reasoning could and would make me do dumb things.

I work a job with a lot of access. But it pays ok, I've had a bit of education and critical thinking training from school, and I'm not about to throw that away and do a stint in jail for a bit of extra cash. It's not some inherent morality built into me by God. It's reasoning. And if you put me against the wall the same reasoning could and would make me do dumb things.

I am glad you can at least admit you are not a good person. That is step one, now that you understand you are a sinner you can maybe work toward real repentance.

The fundamental problem with your approach to life is there is always going to be a moment when an opportunity presents itself. Sooner or later a chance to put your hands into the cookie jar without much chance of discovery or without much chance of recourse by anyone else will come along, and when it does guess what you will do! You can't bribe pe

If you travel with a firearm then you can use non-TSA locks, the luggage is inspected in front of you, and then you lock it with your non-TSA locks and off it goes.

Best part is if/when it goes missing or is late, etc. you get to look at the airport staff and ask "Y'all gonna call teh BATFE and report a stolen firearm in a secure area or am I?"

So if you travel with expensive photo stuff, computing equipment or other electronics, etc. it may be worth buying a $100 single shot shotgun and keeping only the re

People shouldn't steal, but baggage theft has been a problem for a long time. Never ship valuables in checked baggage.

My mom used to "hide" her jewelry in her checked bag. Considering it would all fit in a carry on it made no sense; and because it never got stolen my explanation of why it was a bad idea was ignored.

All it takes is a few crooks acting in concert to steal your stuff. Even though I never check anything of value, I once had a bag of candy stolen. Didn't see that coming.

Depending on where you fly, it might have been discarded, not stolen

Depending on where you fly, it might have been discarded, not stolen

True, but I have never had an issue with them on that route before; so I'm leaning to stolen.

This. I flew on business recently, and I put one of my airtags in the bag -- as a trial, because I"d never done it before, and as a means to see where my bag is. This worked better than I anticipated.

Airport I was departing from had thunderstorms, which means the ramp is closed for as long as there's lightning on or around the airfield. I was in terminal A17. The bag was still in the main building a ways away. I checked from time to time, and sure 'nuff, not long after they opened the ramp the bag show

The problem is that you need an Apple account and an Apple device to set them up. It's a shame all these manufacturers can't get together and agree a standard, so that Apple, Samsung, Tile and the rest all inter-operate and benefit from each other's networks.

I've been thinking about getting some AirTags because my wife has an iPhone to set them up with. Or maybe just build some compatible hardware now that the protocol has been cracked. The Apple hardware has some undesirable features and I resent giving th

To you Apple is a problem, and a company you don't wish to patronize.

Meanwhile, I have the same beef about Google and Android -- not a penny for Google.

The Apple hardware, cameras, color rendition and on and on are superior to what my work-issued Samsungs had -- so I made my bed and slept in it. Apple it is for phones, PC it is for computers.

There are vendor-agnostic non-phone-based trackers but since they ahve their own GPS and phone, they are huge, expensive, and hard to hide in a bag. AirTags, Tiles an

The issue with GPS trackers is that to be useful to me I would need an international SIM card, and they are not cheap or very reliable in my experience.

Google and Apple cooperated on the COVID contact tracing tech. I wish they would cooperate on this. Not just because I want tags, but because without that every Android user needs to download at least one, maybe more special apps that warns them if someone planted a tag on them. It's trivially easy to disable an AirTag's speaker, and I imagine the other ones

Or else airport workers will make their lives hell

Apple has the FindMy feature for phones and other items. This is how one man in Ukraine was able to track where his AirPods went when a Russian soldier stole them [businessinsider.com]. This also allowed the Ukrainian military to track Russian troop movements.

Just wait until police or other such agencies start using them (if they haven't already). You ain't seen nothing yet.

There are already stories about supposedly criminals taping airtags or other trackers to quickly-accessible-yet-hidden bits of people cars, then track the cars and steal 'em.

Problem is, I dunno about tile, but airtag's *registered* to the owner's icloud account, each one has a unique serial number, and any investigator with two brain cells left should be able to follow that trail.

Not to mention, iphones will alert you to a tag-along tag that you do'nt own, and there are apps for similair purposes in android

Thou shalt not post a positive story about an Apple product!

The bigger story here is that notwithstanding all our public paranoia about data tracking, I find being tracked a lot more useful in everyday life than. anonymity. I'm safer riding Ubers than riding taxis, and for the same reason driving for Uber is far safer than driving a cab. If something goes wrong with one of my tracked bank card transactions I have recourse to a legal system that may if my luck holds protect me, while with cryptocurrency I wo

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