Having traveled quite extensively throughout the world, I find that TAS in the States is the start of madness! If I am traveling in warm weather, I always wear sandals, my backpack, my pocketless coat, very little jewelry, and I load all my stuff in one plastic basket. My time finally comes up at the xray machine, my basket has whipped thru the other machine, and my xray beep goes off. I can't see my basket, where is it??? The wand is brought out.... I have nothing on my person to ring off the wand, but I can't see my stuff! As they take their time "wanding" me...front and back, up and down.....do I fit their profile, I wonder....blond, blue eyes, tall, WASP, don't do drugs....what is wrong here? I tell them to hurry, I don't see my basket.....has it been stolen? They say to hold still, and I say I want my stuff! After they have finished playing with the wand, I bolt to the front....no plastic bucket! Naturally, I look for the REAL policeman with the GUN, and frantically tell him I can't find my plastic bucket. He slides off his stool, looks around, and asks what color was my bucket. All the buckets are dirty cream color, and my backpack is black, and my sandals are black. Where is it, I scream. Suddenly, I wake up from what is truly a nightmare!

The moral of the story is: keep your eye on your stuff because there is more theft at the security stations than anywhere else in the airport!