Do I have any rights at all in this situation? The item in question was an empty Thermos... this was a RETURN trip, on the first leg of the trip I went through security at two different airports and both times they pulled the Thermos out, verified that it was empty, and sent us on our way with no problems. As far as experience and research tell me, an empty Thermos is perfectly acceptable.

On the return trip, security was CRAWLING. The TSO's explanation to someone else in line who asked was that they were understaffed, and yet they were making silly chitchat with almost everyone who came up. I'm not talking about anything related to the flight, they were commenting on the weather or telling people their kids were cute, etc. I finally got to the front, and a security officer bellows out "Three minutes till they close boarding on the Chicago flight!" (as if it was OUR fault that we were still in line?) so everyone starts panicking and rushing through as quickly as we can.

I saw someone pull the water bottle out of the bag and open it, but unlike the previous two flights they didn't SAY anything to me about it. Didn't tell me they were checking to see if it was empty, didn't tell me it was or wasn't allowed, anything. And then I was rushing to the gate. I was pretty sure that I forgot the Thermos in the plastic bin, until we actually contacted the airport.

They say they checked the security camera, and that I did NOT leave anything in the bin. I noticed that the Thermos was missing as soon as I got on the plane, I'm pretty sure that I never got it back after the security checkpoint and if I DID, I didn't have much room to drop it... there are only six gates at this airport and we left from the one closest to security. The airport, the airline, and TSA say they don't have it. The security camera says I didn't leave it in the bin. It makes no sense that someone would steal a kids' Thermos, when there was also a wallet, a video camera, etc in the bag that were fine.

The only thing I can guess is that TSA did not return the Thermos to our bag or put it in the bin, so there would be nothing there for the camera to see me forget. I wasn't thinking about that, when the guy was sitting there bellowing that we were going to miss our flight (which took off late anyway). The ONLY other thing I could think of is that they put it back into someone else's bag by mistake, and again in that case why wouldn't that person have turned it in to the airline? It's not worth anything to anyone but my kids.

I'm no longer in that city but we have family that are... would TSA show them the security tape if they asked? If someone else ended up with it and just took it for whatever reason, that person sucks but I guess there's nothing I can do.... but if the security officer lost or threw away something that IS allowed, do we have any rights in this situation at all?