Loren Pechtel

Yeah, this fits the observations, also. It's also possible that it wasn't actually removed but rather knocked out while removing something else and rolled away unnoticed.

Loren Pechtel

The TSA would know it was insulin. That doesn't tell them whose.

I used to carry a liquid medicine though the checkpoints. The outer box had the prescription label on it that said it was mine and had the dosage information. However, there were two layers of inner packaging, neither of which carried anything that would tie it to me and I don't believe even carried an expiration date. I would normally have a partially-used second-level package somewhere else other than in the main box.

Boggie Dog

It seems TSA is claiming that no insulin was found at the checkpoint after the fact.

That might be true.

The lady either had or did not have insulin.

If she did not have insulin then the report was false from the beginning.

If she had insulin then it went missing during/after TSA screening or she had it all along.

The missing insulin should have been turned in as missing property or may have ended up in some persons pocket.

jkhuggins

Or thrown out as merely abandoned property.

chollie

I do have the slightest sympathy for TSA here.

IF someone at TSA really wants to improve the agency, one of the biggest hurdles is going to be the reputation the agency has painstakingly built over the last decade, much of it by design.

From the beginning, the agency wanted to come across as quasi-military. Bark orders, brook no exceptions, punitive actions that were vaguely reminiscent of 'drop and give me 50' penalties in boot camp. Over time, the agency has taken an increasingly adversarial approach to pax.

Part of this approach has been to lie or distort the truth in TSA's favor at every turn. One of the most egregious examples was Blogdad Bob's lie about Phil Mocek's alleged 'guilt'.

Unfortunately, things are never as black-and-white as TSA generally paints it. The organization has a big credibility problem, so it's hardly surprising 10 years on if some folks (those who have been on the receiving end of TSA's actions) incline towards giving pax the benefit of a doubt when the situation is not clear.

Why not? TSA never gives the pax the benefit of a doubt.

Too bad for everyone - for pax and for the 'good apple' TSOs.

Boggie Dog

Seems we have been told that TSA policy requires turning property over for accounting purposes.

I would hate to think TSA is just tossing medicines in the garbage. Insulin is deadly if used improperly.

Besides, the TSA employees have been interviewed and they say there was no insulin.

Takes us back to either she is not being truthful or the TSA employees are not being truthful.

chollie

But then it should have been relatively easy to find. Presumably if it was found and thrown out, it would have been disposed of in a receptacle near the checkpoint.

mikeef

I agree with everything you've said. And I do think a lot of the paramilitary attitude is not only by design but also because of poor training and hiring practices. I'll go so far as to say that we have a number of TSOs who post here, despite all the grief we give them, and I have a feeling that they are people that I'd like to have a beer with (Well, root beer, since I don't drink.).

Over the past few months, I've made a conscious decision that I will try and view this forum as objectively as possible. And it's still very difficult to do. I've seen enough from the organization over the past decade that I am almost always going to give the passenger or the story the benefit of the doubt, unless it's so outrageous that it couldn't possibly be true.

And on that note, if there is someone who wants to improve the reputation of the agency, they have to start right now. You point out correctly that it will take a long time to do. So there's no time like the present to get started.

Mike

jkhuggins

Then all of those half-empty bottles of water thrown out at TSA checkpoints are already violating that rule ...

There's a third possibility. One (or both) parties is mistaken about what happened.

It's unclear from the reports I've seen here as to when, exactly, it was determined that insulin was missing. If it was hours later, finding it might not have been possible.

moondog

Bob is having a tough time defending this case over in PV; he is standing by the "she lied" premise, but it doesn't appear that many are taking that bait. Some very interesting comments about ice there, too.

Sorority Luchesi

I would just go with A. I don't think that another diabetic would use insulin that isn't theirs as each insulin is probably different and each diabetic has a different response to it. I know I'm probably not making any sense right now as it is 1 am here and I have brain fog.

On the topic, my mom is a Type 1 fragile diabetic and absolutely needs insulin. What I don't get is why the TSO felt that they had to confiscate this person's insulin. Bottles are clearly marked as to what they are such as Humalog and it is clearly indicated what they are used for.

diamond404

Strange story

Boggie Dog

Not making any sense is a hallmark of TSA.

RichardKenner

That's my feeling as well. There definitely was a difference here in the issues of the ice and the insulin. There's no question that TSO disallowed the ice (there's the issue of whether they should have). But nobody, including the passenger, claims that the insulin was disallowed: it merely "got lost". Somebody (either TSO or other passenger) could indeed have stolen it, but I agree (and was tempted to post) that the above two are real possibilities and (I think) the most likely possibility. Or a variant of #2, where it fell into some odd place in the bag and didn't turn up until much later, when she was too embarassed to mention it.

T-the-B

Your observation is 100% on target. Another way to put it is this: If you view the general public with distrust and treat them as adversaries it should not be surprising if they reciprocate.

This would be bad enough if we were just concerned with the public relations ramifications. However; in my own case -and I suspect for many other frequent travelers as well- TSA is the last place I would turn if I saw something truly suspicious. They have constantly reinforced an image of combativeness and incompetence to the degree that, if I saw a person boarding a plane with a bomb in his hand, I would exhaust all other options before involving TSA. The true tragedy of TSA's bumbling is that they have alienated the largest potential anti-terrorism resource the nation has - its citizenry. Good for us that the threat TSA supposedly guards against is effectively non-existent.