There is a positive side to this and that is that the bad guys almost always get caught.

If you review theft at checkpoint reports for the past several years you would see that in virtually every instance the thief was located at the gate and the property recovered.

Let's keep this in perspective. While it is fun to bash the TSA (sometimes deservedly) this is not one of those times.

Metal detectors and baggage screening devices have been around for eons and lots of stuff would get stolen. The amount of stolen laptops was staggering. Now, there are only one or two reports a month of something going missing at checkpoints.

What's the difference between now and then? CCTV and the bag guys know they are being watched. The Fullerton cop certainly should have known but we know that all crooks are stupid.

TSA doesn't know what belongs to whom when it comes out of the screening maching and realistically there is no way of resolving that problem without dramatically slowing down throughput.

The most common items that are stolen at checkpoints are watches, jewelry and wallets. Very few laptops, tablets or cellphones are taken.

Since all of the people at the checkpoint are passengers (with a very small percentage of non flying accompanying family members,) all of the thefts are crimes of opportunity with the bad guy thinking "that watch looks nice." These thefts are usually very easy to prevent. Just dump all your stuff (watch, jewelry, wallet) into your carry-on and send it through the machine. Put your laptop in the last bin you send through to give yourself a better chance of being on the other side when it pops out of the machine.

This is NOT a TSA failure, but rather a success story about how personal security has improved at checkpoints over the years.
)