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You may be safe! 03.14.2003

I recently flew from Seattle to Kansas City with a stop in St. Louis. When I arrived in Kansas City and picked up my bag from the baggage check it had a plastic zip tie on my zippers and the following note saying that they had physically inspected my bag.

I find it terribly amusing that they may have been searching my bags for prohibited items. I mean if they weren't searching for prohibited items just what were they doing while "physically inspecting" my bag? Coveting my game cube that I took with me perhaps?

I also love how they say that they will have returned the contents to my bag. Does that mean that if they weren't searching for prohibited items, which above they said they might not have been, that they would return the prohibited itmes that they didn't search for to said bag?

But I really love their "tamper-evident seal," which was simply a plastic zip tie that you can buy at virtually any hardware store. It didn't even have a number on it so they could identify if someone had removed it and added something to my bag and then replaced it with yet another zip tie. There's no way they can tell if someone had tampered with my bag unless the person is a complete idiot.

Moral of the story. You may be safe when flying. But don't expect the government to be responsible for it. Because they may not actually be looking for "prohibited items" and rather are just sticking easily defeated zip ties in the way of a terrorist.