"Hi there, Skycaps work for tips. I'll bet you didn't know that."

Wait.. you tipped her at least $2.50 a bag. . and she wrote that? I'd be mighty p*ssed. .

I must be dense. I'm having a little trouble tracking what happened here.

You give your bag to the skycap, tip her probably more than is the norm, then get to your destination and find a TSA document inside the bag with that handwritten note?

Your home is MCI, which, as I recall, is an airport staffed by contractors, not TSA, and all bags are brought to the scanner by pax or the skycap. So that means...

1) The skycap is opening bags and putting in the TSA message. That is a huge issue. First, someone other than TSA is opening bags and putting (at least) the TSA message inside -- while removing (or adding) god knows what. That alone should get TSA's very serious attention, as well as some LEO attention. With the curb 20 feet from the scanners, I'm having trouble figuring out where that could happen, short of the skycap taking the bag into a break room or someplace similar.
2) The skycap is working with the TSA-contractors to place the message in designated bags. Again, a serious issue. If a bag is being opened not because of a security issue, but because of a tip issue -- even by a TSA contractor -- that, again, is a serious breach.
3) The skycap is writing on the TSA form and the TSA contractors are inserting those forms into any bag that they legitimately open. Not as serious unless the TSA contractors know what is on the form and are allowing this to happen.

In instance 1), the skycap needs to be fired and probably should be charged with something -- I'm sure there is a federal statute someplace that covers unauthorized opening of luggage. At any rate, if MCI has been having a rash of baggage content thefts that coincide with TSA forms, then I think we can point to a possible source. In instance 2), the skycap and all of the TSA contractors involved should be fired. In instance 3), fire the skycap and discipline the contractors for not securing their documents.

All of these are pretty good stretches, but I suppose that could be happening. Still, I would expect that we would have seen other reports here by other FTers experiencing something similar.

Yep...each curbside has an airlined employed Skycap with a TSA scanner behind them. The slip isn't out of the norm cause everytime the search your bag they toss one in...so Isee this about every other flight. Of course the Skycap writing is very out of the norm...lol...and pisses me off a bit.

My father and I talked about this shortly after I returned from the trip and we both were thinking there would be some federal regulations against tampering with this document.

hey, my friend just got handwritten notes in her bag saying "traitor" and pages ripped out her school books (about 9/11) i was appalled by this. is there any way you could give me more details about skycap. im thinking about writing an article for my school newspaper. any help or contact info would be greatly appreciated. thank you, kristina

[email protected] is my email if anyone has any information. thanks.