Civil Fine in my future?
 

Friday, I checked my golf bag DEN-ELP. When I got to ELP no golf bag and no clothing. My stuff came in on the next flight, and my TSA approved TUMI cable lock was missing. Looked in the golf bag and had a love note, and an orange note that said that they had removed "hazmat", from my bag, and described it as a lighter or matches. I can only think that I may have had a lighter in one of the pockets, since I have been known to smoke a cigar now and then. I would like to file a claim for the $20 lock that went missing, but am afraid that I would be subjected to a civil fine for violating the prohibition on lighters in checked luggage.

Think I have to worry about getting a civil fine levied?

No, it was way before (since 2002) when a bunch of my co-workers and I were staffed overseas and stocked the larder with food from the states on every trip home.

I get the TSA note quite often. My 'guess' is it's the bottle of wine in my checked bag I usually take on overseas trips (w/ the GPB exchange rate it's cheaper to bring a bottle & have a glass of wine in my room before going out than pay for it at the hotel bar!). Or it could be flat-iron (for hair). Given I pack the bottle well & in the middle to avoid breakage, I always worry that TSA is just going to toss it back in & it will roll to the side/get smashed. Cheers.

PS - it never occurred to me that food would set off any alarms!