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RIPPED OFF!!!!!!!!... beware of the TSA when traveling


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Nobody takes the train here. Unless they have moved it- the train station is in crack town. Don't go there with anything less than a bazooka. Typical of our city. One of the guys at work went to the station to pick up his step son at 3:00 in the afternoon. He arrived a few minutes early and decided to sit in the car and read the paper. A vomit soaked wino opened the pssenger door of his car and sat down begging for money. he finally gave the wino 5 bucks to get out of his car. A crackhead prostitute witnessed this - came over and solicited him. Then the dummy came to work and told everybody. Many jokes and lots mileage from that one. Unless they have changed it- the 2 places that you never go here are the train and the. bus station. Otherwise- I think using Amtrack wuld be cool. Never rode rode a train in my life.

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Over in England, the Royal Family sometimes ride the train (and not always in their private car), like when Prince Charles recently rode with other passengers, in first class of course:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/surrey/6484631.stm

Also:

"He has been accused of failing to put his money where his mouth is when it comes to staking his claim as the country's greenest royal.

So when Prince Charles decided to let the train take the strain as he attended a series of engagements yesterday to highlight climate change, it appeared to be the answer to his critics.

Commuters on the 10.20am South West Trains service from London Waterloo to Woking were astonished to see the future king hop on board with his bodyguards and a secretary - although he did, admittedly, head for the First Class Carriage.

The Prince - whose one-way ticket cost just £15.80, as opposed to the £22,000 it normally costs the tax payer to get the royal train out of its sidings - duly sat down at his pre-allocated seat alongside other bemused-looking business travellers."


And it won't be just a one-time event:

"Britain's Prince Charles will travel by public train for only the fourth time ever on Valentine's Day.

The prince will take a Eurostar train to Brussels, in Belgium, where he will give a speech to the European Parliament on February 14, but has insisted on returning to London in time for a romantic evening with wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall."

In many countries, downtown is not scary-town, it's where all the big businesses are, as well as the train and bus stations.

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Last year i almost got thrown off an island because I am diabetic and had needles and insulan.

Bum,

Can I ask what happened with the meds in the end? I am also Diabetic (Type I) and have never flown to where I need/want to go, but who knows what will happen in the future with work related possible needs to travel.

Type I here too. I wear a pump and I have been through every process/reaction from its no big deal to people looking at my like I am wired to explode, I have been wanded, patted down forced to open all my luggage in my possession going through security to you name it. I could live with some of the hassle if it was consistent but each place has it own set of "guidelines” and there is absolutely no consistency. The one that really irks me is when they ardently stare at my beard and then my pump as if I am some sort of terrorist. I served 9 ½ years in the Navy defending this place and I get some 10 buck an hour schmuck deciding if I meet his criteria for a search. IMO TSA is a miserable failure and I too have had some minor things stolen from my checked baggage.
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With the TSA making flight a complete nightmare these days, there is NO way I will fly unless it is the absolute last resort. I'd rather drive 1000 miles than fly. Let all the airlines go bankrupt for all I care. They deserve it.

The TSA (thousands standing around) and the airlines are two separate things. Airline crews are treated just as poorly as the public, even after they have by now been fingerprinted and checked out by the FBI five times. The English security is the worst, just try saying a cross word about the queen. The irony is that on one side of the line a Captain is a possible terrorist but on the other side the airplane and passenger's chief protector.

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Today at lunch I googled"TSA stole my stuff". 9500 hits. Stories just like the ones here.This situation is well known and documented. it appears that the current state of affairs is "acceptable" to the the people in charge and your belonging are fair game if you choose to fly. Guess this 10.00 an hour job- as the previous poster put it-provides the worker with stealing your stuff as a perk- with the govt's blessings.

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This is the state of the world today. It's not the fault of whoever's in the White House, and the federal government isn't trying to piss you off to show their power. Petty security people everywhere in the world can be very annoying, like when Customs in eastern Europe holds someone up at the border for 12 hours because they haven't realized a bribe is in order.

Norman Rockwell painted fantasies. America, and the world, never really was like his paintings. It may be time to admit that and get on with things.

Your point is well taken.

My primary comlaints aren't with strict regulation, but with the complete incompetence and ignorance with which they are carried out. If you're carrying a large sum of cash (say a couple thousand dollars - far below the $10k limit that flags the IRS, customs, etc.), you can expect to be detained and possibly have the cash seized.

People have been told they do not have Constitutional rights in an airport. Period.

I understand the reality of today's world. I also understand that flying, in most cases, is a choice. I choose not to put myself through that headache and trauma. I would rather my travel time be 5 times longer than fly. I am thankful I don't have to fly as part of my job. If I did, I would probably try to find other employment.

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Flying is not really a choice there is no other viable option to go from one side of the county to the other efficiently. As with most I do not mind following rules just make the rules the same everywhere. Do pat search me in San Diego, ignore all rules in Harrisburg PA, wand me in New Orleans and not be able to explain why I am begin singled out. In order to arrest me you have to tell me what rule transgression I am being charged with or arrested for. Apparently TSA has no charter or requirement to do that at all, they can search me at will for no apparent reason....then there is the stuff stolen issue.

.

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For what it is worth, all x-rays see through clothes. At some of the sites I have worked at, TSA got so bad I would ship the luggage UPS and only bring on a light carry-on.

If you want to have fun with them, tell them you work at a nuclear facility, which automatically qualifies you for their double secret meeting with managers. Most of their employees do not understand the difference between information freely provided by an American citizen and coerced confessions from a terrorist, and their procedures don't cover this subtlety.

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I've worked for TSA since the git-go and we received HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of claims for stolen LAPTOPS from the beginning. That was JUST laptops. Things have gotten better over time but there are still issues. When you have a workforce of 46,000 that are constantly turning over (albeit much better than in the beginning), you get some bad apples...

The best advice I can give you is file a complaint through TSA's website:

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/customer/claims/index.shtm

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Just the laptops stolen numbers in the thousands.... with a workforce of 46,000.

Um, you've got more than a few bad apples.


Maybe it's just one really busy bad guy who steals a few laptops from every flight... [6][:@]
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A good friend is flying out to Africa for a Buffalo hunt/photo safari- Atlanta to Johanesburg on Friday with a bunch of expensive stuff- Guns - Binoculars- cameras- ect. Out of our group 3 of us have been TSAed. The poor guy is losing his mind- worried about his gear getting stolen after my ordeal. He calls me every day to ask my advice about how to avoid this. Don't ask me.. I'm the guy who got ripped off. Pretty sad state of affairs.

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