Who locked my bag?
 

Flying from TFS to BRS on Easyjet a couple of days ago, I was surprised to discover after arrival that the zips on one of my hold bags had been secured with a small brass padlock. It was easy enough to break open when I got home, but who locked the bag, and why? There were no suspicious contents (mostly dirty clothes, plus a litre of gin) and nothing was missing. Anyone else experienced this?

Hello cargo duck and welcome to the cabin. That has to be one of the most unusual things reported here!

Someone else is no doubt complaining that security opened their lock and never replaced it...................

I'm fortunate enough to have never had anything taken from a bag, but I have had the TSA have a nosey on pretty much every flight I've taken in, through or from the USA. I often fly standby, so perhaps that's why.

On the last time, a few weeks ago going from ORD-LAX, they not only inspected my bag but actually repacked it and foled my jacket and a pair of jeans I had hastilly shoved into the void space between the two halves of my bag before heading to ORD. Quite a nice surprise as normally the TSA leave it looking far worse than it was when I closed it up!

Practically every flight to the States sees a TSA calling card in my suitcase, never had anything taken so as far as I’m concerned keep up the good work. On a different note flights from Birmingham (UK) to European destinations almost always sees a TSA lock removed and not replaced from my Peli tool case. Again nothing ever taken but at fiver a time I’m ticked off replacing padlocks.

The small brass padlocks get everywhere across airfields, particularly in aircraft holds. I suspect a bored baggage handler just clipped one on your bag

And about those TSA locks, keys are available in the black market.
A "smart" guy had the idea to 3D print them almost the day after the "not so smart" TSA published a picture of all of them in an article.

On non USA flights, I use full on Abus locks on my Peli tool case. If security want to check it, they can page me for the key.

I simply never put anything of value in my suitcase, but I guess that's an option that some may not have.

It seems like some baggage handler who had a spare lock decided to be a good samaritan to the OP's belongings. Do they still offer that 'clingfilm' wrapping service at some airports around the world ? I wonder what would/does happen when someone (in authority) wants to see the insides of said baggage ?

Yes I've seen it in quite a few places............... the authorities just rip the film off if they are interested.

Padlocks, waste of money!
 

If your bag with a has a zip it can be opened in seconds (legally or otherwise) with an everyday office/home item and then closed and you will never know until you notice the missing item.

A quick youtube search can find how to do this. As well as locks I also use zip ties as a telltale.

That's useful but also quite worrying..............................

Many moons ago, while back packing, I sent a parcel home from Australia to lighten the load.

For customs you were supposed to declare the contents, so I reluctantly wrote "Sennheiser headphones" amongst other items.

When I got home and looked at the parcel, it was obvious that it had been opened. The headphones, (a high quality pair), were gone. The china and porcelain items brought back as presents and carefully wrapped by me had all been undone and just chucked back in - luckily none broke - and bizarrely, there was a T shirt and pair of shorts that were not mine but resembled ones I had put in.

Obviously, somebody in customs has all the parcels opened and anything of value is nicked, and then the contents just shoved back and very badly resealed and posted on. In my case the wrong, but similar, contents !

Never let anything of value out of your sight.

Also, assume that any bag put in the hold might be dropped from 6' onto concrete. This is not necessarily deliberate, but bags do fall from the aircraft holds or baggage trucks when loading or unloading. I occasionally have to ask the loaders to be more careful, and was physically assualted by one charmless **** at Luton, when I took exception to him just throwing the customer's cases at the loading belt and dropping most of them onto the apron from height.

"Never let anything of value out of your sight." should be tattooed on every passengers forehead.............. you should minimise the items you have as things have gone missing even at hand luggage Xray machines - you just have to be in the wrong queue and get a body scan and your expensive belt, watch or laptop is sitting out of site several metres away at the end of the belt - a grave temptation to some......

Whilst passing through an eerily quiet LHR before Xmas, I mentioned this very conundrum to the security check people as I was collecting my valuables. One of them said that it happens more often than you'd think. However one passenger had their brand new iPhone 11 (£1200 worth) stolen by 'someone' within the last few months who must have been several steps ahead. The security were able to look at cctv footage from various angles, identify the passenger/thief and apparently the aircraft that they were flying on was turned around after less than an hour and they were arrested upon landing and the phone (and it's important personal information) was returned to the distraught owner.

Regarding searches, a family member was on an internal flight in the Soviet Union back in the day. On arrival at their hotel, they found that their suitcase (which I think they said was locked) was precisely as packed - except for one item which had moved from the bottom, to the top. In other words, "we are letting you know that it's been searched, but you wouldn't know otherwise".

Regarding theft, one of my party walked away from their carry-on bags at the departure gate in BCN for a couple of minutes, whilst we were all queueing up. Gone. I can only assume staff - i.e. cleaners, snack-stand workers.

Regarding cling-wrap - still there at T2 BCN.