Originally Posted by daytonaredeye

I know I am late to this discussion but just joined this board today. Lots of good looking topics and looks like public well represented (not a bunch of airline/airport/TSA/air industry folks defendin' their turf)

While my experiences with TSA lately have been a little more enjoyable and low key, some experiences from a couple of years ago really rubbed me the wrong way. Back then, it wasn't uncommon to see the occasional "buff" guy who took his/her job waaaaay too seriously. They were easy to spot as they had the patented LEO nightstick/blackjack/billy club NOTICABLY jutting from their "utility belt". Right next to it was the small cannister of mace and next to that was the set of handcuffs. I really laughed when I saw this setup the first time and made the mistake of mentioning something about "all these Barny Fifes around here" and quickly drew a lot of stares from these guys - to a point that they actually scarred me a few times.

I will relate one story and I think it will stand as my take on TSA

Couple of years ago someone mistakenly took my laptop from the x-ray security line. She was in a bigger hurry than I and she inadvertently took my machine and ran to her plane. I know this b/c she left hers behind and I contacted her about it as she had taped her business card to it. She apologized and we swapped laptops thru the mail; I realize that I was lucky to have gotten it back and had not, indeed, become another victim of an accidental loss or thieves.

Anyway, right after I noticed my laptop missing from the security x-ray belt, I mentioned this to the TSA guy watching my line. First words out of his mough were NOT "I'm sorry to hear that, lets see if we can . . ." No, he actually said "Not my problem". I then explained that it had gone missing while in HIS (TSA) possession and his next words were "You gave up all rights as a US citizen the minute you stepped into that security line" as if my rights as a US citizen had anything to do my current problem. I was really taken aback by his remarks and came so close to hitting this guy that I am surprised, all these years later, that I did not. He turned away from me as if he had fulfilled his duty to me and walked away. It was only by the grace of GOD, and his supervisor, that more bad stuff didn't happen to him (and me, I guess) that day. His supervisor saw that I was obviously upset and came over to talk to me. After listening to my explanation, he took me to the TSA booth and we discussed what had happened, he logged the problem into his shift notes and took my name, contact info and, most importantly, he took me back to the TSA line and asked me if I recognized any of the other items there or if I had noticed anything else missing and I said no. Also found another laptop there that was unclaimed; turns out it was the laptop mistakenly left behind by the person who took mine - and you know the rest of the story as I posted above.

Point is that the TSA supervisor didn't do any heroics, no CPR, no interrogation of suspicious characters, etc.; what he did was to keep a clear head and intervene when an upset passenger (me) was obviously having a problem with one of his employees. The supervisor's actions were, by my opinion, worthy of merit and what I think TSA would hope the character of their employees exemplifies but, unfortunately (as many of you know and have extensively documented here) what the general public sees is an army of "badge carrying" wannabes - the Barny Fifes of our nations airports.