Getting robbed of this precious cargo will have you flying off the handles.
For most people, there’s no acute agony quite like the pain and panic of losing one’s cell phone, especially at the airport.
But a travel expert warns that digital devices are at high risk of being swiped by ne’er-do-wells when the gadgets are placed in the bins at security checkpoints.
Tiffany, a travel insider, advised her social media followers against directly placing their phones inside TSA bins at the airport. Irina Schmidt – stock.adobe.com“The thing I’m absolutely never doing when I’m going through TSA — I am not putting my phone directly into one of the containers,” swore Tiffany, an on-the-go pro, from Pittsburg, in a beware bulletin. “It’s always going in a zipped pocket in my bag.”
The brunette’s not being paranoid, she’s being proactive.
Tiffany explained to her over 297,000 TikTok viewers that she once innocently plopped her phone into a TSA receptacle, and was immediately reprimanded for making the grave mistake.
Airport thieves can easily swipe an unprotected device from a TSA conveyor belt. Mihail – stock.adobe.com“The TSA agent looked at me and was like, ‘You don’t like your phone?’ And I looked at him like he was a little crazy and I said, ‘Yes,’” she recounted. “He said, ‘This is the fastest way to get it stolen.’”
“The number one thing they see stolen on a regular basis is phones,” Tiffany emphasized, “and it’s because they are left out and available — the lines can back up, you’re not paying attention until you realize and it’s too late.”
It’s a useful forewarning for frequent flyers.
A flight was recently forced to return to its gate after a passenger’s phone was stolen. Prostock-studio – stock.adobe.comAn Air France flight from Paris to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, was recently forced to make a U-turn after a passenger lost their phone.
There are a lucky few who do retrieve their lost or stolen electronics from TSA.
In fact, the authorities claim that close to 100,000 lost items are recovered each year, per the TSA website.
TSA says it will do its best to recover passenger electronics. Framestock – stock.adobe.com“Passengers are encouraged to place their contact information on the outside of their electronics, such as laptops, in case the item is left behind. TSA will make every effort to reunite passengers with their belongings,” the officials say.
“Unclaimed electronics will have its memory removed and destroyed (e.g. laptop hard drive) or be destroyed completely (e.g. items with non-removable memory) to protect personal data after the 30-day holding period,” the noted.
And who wants all that drama?
Hoping to help folks avoid the chaos, Tiffany doubled down on her word-to-the-wise.
“Always make sure your valuables are zipped up [inside] your bag when they go through the scanners,” she urged.
