What Happens to Your Luggage?

Ever wonder what happens to your carry-on bag when it goes under the x-ray hood at the airport?

On a cross-country flight recently, I had to check one large bag. Arriving at my destination and opening that bag in my hotel room, I found a printed note from our friends at the TSA (paraphrasing): "Your luggage was selected for a random security search. If your bag was locked, we cut or broke the lock to gain entrance to your luggage. Sorry 'bout that."

Being the trusting sort, my bag wasn't locked (nor was there anything in that couldn't have been easily replaced if stolen). But I had mixed -- okay, negative -- feelings about this intrusion. I suppose I was warned about it in some cryptic TSA reg which I hadn't read. And I don't have a good answer for the trade-off between privacy and security.

What did cross my mind was the entertainment fodder this exercise must represent for the bag searchers. Think about the variety of surprising things the searchers much encounter as they explore the lives of ordinary Americans vis-a-vis their luggage: "Whoa! What the heck?" I can think of one thing in my bag that likely caused that reaction. And I smile even today at the thought that some handler is still wondering what I was doing with that. (Just like you are.) :-)