Originally Posted by
Mr. Elliott
I use a small non TSA combination lock on my carry on and my attaché case has a built in combination lock and they are both locked before I go through the checkpoint, this prevents the screeners from opening any of my carry on’s before I am able to get to the inspection table.
Everything on me goes into my attaché case including my wallet and watch so I have absolutely nothing on me except my boarding pass if needed, so the screeners don’t have access to my wallet with the pretext of needing re-screening so they can count my money or look at my credit cards.
I always ask the screeners to change their gloves and now pre test their gloves for ETD before I give them the combination. I feel by doing this primarily prevents any false positives that would require more invasive screening and also prevents any chance of a screener stealing anything out of my carry on, I am not saying all screeners are thieves, but there have been way to many thefts at the checkpoint lately so I just do not trust any screener opening my carry on without me standing there watching them very closely.
Mr. Elliott
If you can't hide the key, you can always complicate the problem by putting two or three other padlock keys on the ring. It is a bit of a hassle, but not a huge one. If there isn't only one obvious key to the lock you'll slow them down enough for your issue. You can also file the shoulder of the key just a tad so that you need to pull the key out a smidgen (a term of art) for it to work. With a little practice you'll be able to open and close the lock as fast as normal, but it will slow a stranger down.