The OP confirms it in a later posting.

Shall we recap all of the FlyerTalk postings where a TSO tells a passenger "Oh, gee, sorry, you can't take this item with you, I'll just throw it away for you out of your sight", and then we accuse the TSO of simply stealing the item instead of throwing it away?

Never had someone ask you to bend the rules on their behalf? Happens to me all the time. In fact, if I strictly enforce the rules in play, *I'm* the one whose viewed as being a jerk.

The exact same experience and knowledge you're using: the report of the OP.

Look, in my original posting, I noted that it was incredibly easy for me to render judgment sitting here at my desk. If you want to claim I'm ignorant, fine, but I already beat you to it.

I never said you didn't know the (idiotic) rules. I said the presence of the cup was in violation of TSA's (idiotic) rules. I was trying very carefully not to assess blame here.

Yes, it's unprofessional. I said that. And I also believe that your interaction with that TSO lead to a steady increase in tension in the discussion which made it easier for the TSO to choose to act unprofessionally.

Put it another way. If you don't ask the TSO why she didn't just use one of the trash cans you'd assumed she'd use, the rest of the conversation (including the TSO's unprofessional behavior) doesn't happen. Of course, she still bears complete responsibility for her behavior.

Why would you ever fly with something placed in your bag without your knowledge? That seems to be asking for trouble at best.

Why would I not ask? I'm hardly a anxious mother, but I draw the line at someone who belongs to a group of people that I don't trust, taking my child's possessions out of my sight, then handing it back. Quite simply, the TSA tells me by their actions and words, each time I go through a checkpoint, that I might be a criminal. I have to assume the same about them.

LOL. I can't be the only one with an overly helpful family member.

Do you ever have you bags picked up by hotel staff when at a hotel? Are they ever out of your sight in such case?

How about curbside check-in kiosks available at most airports? Those people are generally not airline employees.

Sure you are. This is FLYERTALK!!!

;)

Ask Stacey Amato and Yukari Mihamae (among many others) how well that worked out for them.

I spoke to a PHX supervisor once. She was the one who advised me that all pax and their belongings are subject to search at any time on airport property and there is zero requirement for TSA to inform the pax that their belongings are being searched or to do it in their sight. (I had asked for her because I turned around from my grope to see a TSO returning my BP and ID to the outside pouch of my locked carry-on. He had taken my docs and photocopied them without saying anything to me.

The supervisor must have been correct, because apparently now PHX (who doesn't have enough folks to staff Pre lanes) has staff accosting pax entering the airport (landside!) and searching their bags.

But she didn't say it in her original post. You made the assumption that the screener offered to test it. You got off lucky with that one.



I've been reading FT for years and don't recall an instance of a commenter stating that a screener took an item out of sight of the commenter in order to throw away that item. I do, however, recall a couple of posts wherein a screener put an allegedly forbidden item on a shelf or storage area under the belt but did so in full view of the passenger.

I wonder how that would work for them at DFW, where, unless things have changed, conceal carry is still allowed landside.

Anyway, there's no good reason for the TSA to be doing anything out of the public eye. I know, I know.

No, I had evidence. Fine, let's go back up-thread:

Note that last word "instead". I think it's pretty clear from that statement that water testing was about to happen, and the OP had to ask for her preferred alternative action.

But, hey, let's make this all about me and not about the TSA.

Seems to me that it is you making it about you. The bulk of your posts on FT are about TSA and other related DHS agencies/programs. In many of those posts you defend the actions and policies of TSA, and deride those who are critical of TSA or say they've had negative personal experiences.

By your own admission, your interactions with TSA are practically nil and statistically insignificant. OTOH there are posters here who have weekly and even daily personal interaction with TSA/DHS. You seem to make a point to argue with, dismiss, or minimize their experiences and viewpoints.

Why? What's your motive?

I still can't figure out how this escalated to where it did. From what I'm reading, the OP presented themselves at the checkpoint. A bag contained a cup with liquid that was forbidden. TSA agent identified said cup and offered a way to dispose/test the object. I guess thats where I would have thought it would have ended - OP would have said something along the lines of "oh, whoops, I forgot about that" TSA agent would test item or dispose of the item and the 'incident' would be over. Even if the OP didn't like the way the object was tested, they could have simply thrown out said object on the other side of the security check point after it was handed back to them. Instead, what I believe I'm reading is that the OP weirdly wanted to know why the TSA agent chose (or didn't choose) a particular trash can...? Then continued to question the disposal process all the while escalating a seemingly routine incident - forgotten cup in a diaper bag - to a threat of being removed from PreCheck? Seems to me the OP was looking for confrontation (and got it) when there really shouldn't have been any issue at all

I can't believe you don't find it odd that the TSA would take a cup into a back room to "empty it into a sink", instead of simply dumping it into a trash can 2 feet away like any passenger would, had they noticed the liquid before proceeding through.

I also can't believe you'd accept belongings back from the TSA after they'd be out of your sight. That's your right, obviously, but I don't think it's very smart. You don't know that person.

As for why I didn't just take it and throw it away past the checkpoint, well, you've never had a toddler in your life, have you?

Its not that at all - you just seem oddly fixated on what trash can they use...that's just plain weird. The end result? The cup is disposed of.

If you were ok with them disposing them, then why wouldn't you just accept them back and dispose of them yourself after the test was performed if you are that worried they are somehow going to contaminate it?

I do. And for the record, having a toddler, I know what battles are worth fighting and what ones to let go, as I'm sure you are...this would have been a battle I personally would have let go

Maybe you misunderstood my initial post. She initially took it to a back room to dump the water down the sink, not to throw the cup out. She then handed it back to me. That's when I told her that I didn't want it. In fact, she agreed with me that she might not want it back either - that's when I asked why she didn't just dump the water in the trash can. I question strange behavior, it's just something I do. Anyway, it was that question that set her off. Maybe she was a janitor in a former life, I don't know.

I didn't take it and throw it out myself because 1) I was startled that she'd taken it out of my sight, 2) was already walking away and 3) didn't want to deal with the fallout when my son saw me throwing it away.

Regardless, I don't see anything wrong with how I handled it. I was just curios about the question in my original post.

First, I disagree with your characterization of my view of the TSA. I've criticized TSA many times here --- in my view, far more than I've defended TSA.

My motive? Pretty simple. I want people to "fight fair". I criticize gaps in logic from both sides.

I criticize TSA for forbidding knives of any length while permitting scissors, when a pair of scissors can be turned into a pair of knives in a matter of seconds. I criticize TSA when it promotes liquid limits of "3 ounces" when the true limit is "100 milliliters" --- and TSA cries that it would somehow be too confusing to advertise the true limits. When a well-known TSO here claims that the BDO program has been a big success but then declines to offer specifics, I've called him out for citing facts not in evidence. Heck, I was put on double-secret probation by FlyerTalk for opposing one particular TSO's faulty logic too strongly.

And then, to be fair, I criticize TSA critics as well. When critics claim BDOs should've found child molesters in their own ranks, I object, since the BDO program was never designed for that. When people complain that TSA costs too much and then turn around and complain that there aren't enough staff at the checkpoint to process passengers in a timely fashion, I point out the contradiction in the claims. And so on.

It seems clear from the OP's accounts that the aggressive remark from the TSO did not come out of nowhere. It was the last step in an interaction between both parties. From my uninformed vantage point, it appears that both parties contributed to the tension in the interaction that led to the outburst.

Who bears responsibility for the outburst? The TSO, absolutely. I've never stated otherwise. But that doesn't mean that the OP made it easy for the TSO, either.