TSA screening checked bags badly
I've always (and always will) locked my checked bags, as there are plenty of people who might steal items otherwise. Not locking bags is, IMHO, as stupid as not locking your car.
When leaving the US, I usually fly out of SEA, which used to have proper TSA scanning in front of the checkin area, but has been moved to some subterranean inspection area so that passengers can no longer see what idiocy is going on. Until last trip, I'd never had a bag opened by the TSA. Putting laptops in checked luggage, however, seemed to cause them to be searched. The searching was stupid:
* They repacked things incorrectly, of course, causing various items to be scratched and bent by other items, which would not have happened as they were originally packed
* Given the corrupted file system on one laptop, they clearly booted it up and then did not shut it down correctly!
... and inconsistent:
* They put a cable tie on one case but simply left the other one unlocked
* They taped one smashed lock to their little "we wuz here" card in one case, but not the other
Quite apart from the obvious world's worst practice here of ever scanning luggage anywhere else other than in front of the owner, the above makes no sense. They don't test laptop functionality at hand luggage screening, so why would they do it for checked luggage? Were they bored and just wanted to play? If they are supposed to tape the smashed lock to their greeting card, why did they only do this in one instance, not both? If they are supposed to cable-tie bag, why did they do this in one instance, not both?