Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!uwvax!umn-d-ub!umn-cs!ems!nis!sialis!rjg
From: rjg@sialis.mn.org (Robert J. Granvin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Airports/laptops
Message-ID: <157@sialis.mn.org>
Date: 11 Feb 88 05:23:01 GMT
References: <1153@valhalla.ee.rochester.edu>
Reply-To: rjg@sialis.mn.org (Robert J. Granvin)
Organization: The Board of Irresponsible People
Lines: 40
Posted: Wed Feb 10 23:23:01 1988

>A friend of mine was travelling through LAX on her way
>to the East Coast with a camera (loaded with film).  She
>didn't want to risk exposing the film to X-Rays so she
>handed the camera to a guard for a hand check.  When she
>went to the other side of the conveyer and asked for her
>camera back the guards replied "What camera?  You never
>handed us a camera."
>
>She complained and went off to find a supervisor.  In the 
>meantime the guards moved the camera somewhere else.  The
>supervisor returned and said "I know you've done this before
>now give her back her camera".  The reply was "What camera?".

The fatal flaw was listed above.  "She complained and went off to find
a supervisor".  When you are in a public place, with very little
direction to go (at security stations, the only ways you can go is up
the hallway, or down the hallway.  There aren't several directions one
can go), you don't give the "suspects" (gotta use the right terms! :-)
any opportunity to leave.

Once she left, she gave the security personnel opportunity to move the
camera so it was no longer at the station.  At that point you've
suddenly made it "your word against theirs".  In this case, you'd
probably never be able to prove your point without witnesses, and the
only witnesses are moving through the area at a rapid pace.

The correct procedure would be to stand your ground, keep the
personnel in plain view and have someone _else_ (a companion, or if
alone, a passerby) summon the appropriate personnel.  Don't give them
the opportunity to leave with your property.

Of course, if you can't find anyone willing to help (unlikely at an
airport as large as LAX, just make a stink.  Someone will eventually
show up.  :-)

-- 
 _____________________________________________________________________________
| Robert J. Granvin     | UNIVERSE:       rjg@sialis.mn.org |                 |
| 2701 West 43rd Street | EARTH: ...ihnp4!bungia!sialis!rjg | Up the voltage! |
| Minneapolis, MN 55410 |   ...uunet!rosevax!ems!sialis!rjg |_________________|