I had an item that went missing from my luggage (However it was UA) last summer and I contacted the good people at TSA and filed a claim (http://www.tsa.gov/public/). They got back to me with a letter stating that it's still a gray area between who's responsible: the airline personnel or the TSA security people, and that my claim would be looked into. Lo and behold about 4 months later, I received a check in the mail for 50% of the cost of my missing item. I thought it was pretty fair, given I could just be any one filling a false claim. I never contacted UA, but maybe they would have given me the other 50% value of my item!? In any case, you may just want to file a claim with TSA. Good luck!