Originally Posted by Bart
While the article points to TSA employee theft, it omits the other possibilities of fellow passengers accidentally picking up your valuables (often happens when someone picks up items for someone else) or thieves who take advantage of the temporary confusion to steal valuables (TSA screeners wouldn't know whose items belong to whom).
I had a situation where I was sent to secondary screening and couldn't see my belongings coming out from the machine. I wanted to wait walking over to the screening location until I was sure my laptop wouldn't be picked up by the passengers standing in front of it, but the screener threatened me with calling the police if I didn't move immediately!
What is your take on the screener's action in this case? Could/should he have allowed me to remain in the little "pen" until I had a clear view of my belongings, or should I have walked over to a place where I had even worse chance of seeing my belongings?