TSA leaves note "Get Your Freak On Girl" for vibrator in luggage

Tasteless and Tacky all around. I was terrified I looked guilty coming from the hook of holland, and my bag was briefly looked through - and thankfully they didnt go through the side pocket where my dirty unmentionables were stored. I was horrified that they might pick up a pair of 'period pants' with a biro and draw attention to their existence and what time of the month it was. One hopes for a certain amount of professional discression - had it been a man searching my bag, I would probably have requested a woman. Thievery by such people should never be tolerated.
Snowy - you could find a saturday job at an Ann Summers shop.

 

I find this interesting, because people know their luggage is being viewed - for their own safety.

Theft is another thing, that should not be allowed. This person, who left the note, didn't make it public. He (she?) just sent a humorous note inside the luggage, and apparently managed to humor this attention-seeking woman, who was not later embarrassed to tell everyone, she carries a dildo with her.

Maybe people working at security also like a little humor in their work. Imagine what kind of stuff they have to go through day after day... including people's laundry... to determine, whether things they see, could be used as weapons.

I suggest they put up a separate line for those, who want to fly at one's own risk. You get straight access to a plane with all the other people, who don't want their luggage examined. Good luck and bon voyage!

 

The overall expectation of privacy is maintained despite the fact that baggage, including intimate items, are subject to hands-on screening.

TSA agents are supposed to be uniformed robots, not comedians. The minute they step away from that, they aren't doing their job.

Your point? They get paid to suffer through a monotonous job. Just like the rest of us that work a typical rat race job.

Word on the street is that they call it work because it's something you do for a paycheck. Enjoying it is entirely optional.

 

My point is, he (or she) didn't need to lose his job for this. The woman could have taken this to his superiors privately, but I gather since she decided to give it so much publicity, they had no choice but to sack the person, when they could have given him a warning or other penalty. The company might have appreciated more subtle way to settle this. If the woman had been publically humiliated, my stance would be different.

This employee made a bad choice of inserting some humor to his work. The woman didn't initially feel herself insulted or violated, did she? She wanted this person humiliated - or TSA?

It would be interesting to see, what would happen, if they actually replaced human workers with robots.

 

Offer a higher wage and attract employees who are at least clever enough to know to disguise their handwriting.

Next time I'm going to pack Giganticus. Just to fuck with them.

 

I sense the woman in question just smelled drama here instead of letting the company decide, whether their employee is suitable for their work or not.

Public humiliation probably works quickest though.

Sometimes people just act without thinking too much, like the employee did - perhaps, I wouldn't know his motives. The woman's reaction was spontanious too, she had found it hilarious. But give a little time and she sees an opportunity to reach the headlines.

 

It was a stupid thing to do.

I think the guy who did it should have been reprimanded rather than let go. (I hope he at least got a cake in the shape of a dildo)

But with so many people out of work and no union interference, zero tolerance for such things is a breeze for management.

 

What company? It's a government agency. A government agent went through her stuff and left an offensive note behind. That begs the questions "what's next?" There's never a set of circumstances where it's ok for a stranger to do something like that, and what would this fool do next? Think it's ok to steal something? Take a picture of himself masturbating onto his underwear?

 

Government agency, company - both take customer complaints? We want government keeping their eyes open, but on the other hand it should be blind, deaf and dumb?

This fellow did not steal anything. Did I post something to suggest I accept stealing? I think I did the opposite.

You're thinking ahead, when you picture "what's next". One person made a mistake, we can't tell if it is or would have been continuing. I see two ways of dealing with this. The woman chose the other. Good for her. I'm not defending the employee, just questioning the way, how she wants this handled.

Making it public can also lead to more hostility and tension at the inspections. Imagine now the employees will be more strictly told not to let any humor or emotions show. I'm guessing the public sympathy will be on this woman's side. She did nothing wrong, of course, she just carried personal items across the pond. I'm seeing the staff from now on possibly getting more negative attention at their work.

I'm referring to this:

Maybe, just maybe, the person investigating her stuff, saw her as someone, who could take this kind of humor. He was right... no wait, it later approves, he was clearly in the wrong. If it was meant as an insult, they had chosen wrong type of person for the job.

“When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.” ~ Oscar Wilde

 

Doris - I think you've missed my point entirely.

First - the government vs. a company. This government agent went through her bag looking for explosives. That's his job. His entire agency exists to keep the flying public safe. In this case, he's violated that trust. Funny or not, it wasn't appropriate. Personally, I think it's very funny, but there's no way that he could have known that. It could have been incredibly embarrassing to someone. The right person might have thrown away that toy knowing that a stranger had touched it.

Second - looking ahead. In the age where we publicly list our sex criminals, we've figured out that there's an escalation of behaviors if they aren't stopped. Just like most people would never leave a note with the sex toys when they go to visit, no other TSA agents have done the same those in checked bags. That's because it's so far beyond the rhelm of good taste and manners that the vast majority of the population ignores someone else's sex.

Since you seem entirely ignorant of the TSA and how they work, let me fill you in. They do not respond to complaints. They routinely ignore criticism unless it receives publicity. From the TSA's point of view, this situation is actually a win from them because they could take an obvious step to correct an obvious error. They've refused to apologize for frisking toddlers or for making octogenarian, wheelchair-bound cancer survivors remove adult diapers.

 

Reading the above sounds like she was ok with it until someone told her to be outraged and thus there could be a lawsuit.

To me, she's over reacting. ANYONE in their right mind knows that your things will be gone through in an airport. Hell, they have videos of them frisking kids, the elderly and the disabled, so NOTHING is off limits. As someone with an odd sense of humor and a knack of saying things at inappropriate times, I could see me having said something like that. Writing it would be different, for fear of losing that minimum waged job. And therein lies the answer, you want better smarter workers pay them more. So the CEO makes a little less by paying decent wages and benefits. I'm sure better wages and benefits would cost far less than the lawsuit and negative press will in the long run. (Here in Ohio they are contracted out so the agents aren't truly government employees, more like security guards. They hold you should they have to and (much like dept stores w/ shoplifters) will notify authorities (the police) and detain you until they arrive).

Me, personally, I would have taken the note with a grain of salt laughed and thrown it away, bringing the spotlight to it would be more embarrassing for me than the note. But someone (the lady) must have seen dollar signs and said WTF.

 

I would rather my government workers laugh and have a sense of humor than the cold, exactly by the book attitude that some of them have. If you have gone through security and customs enough, you know to avoid the type if possible.

 

You mean a "a sense of humor I agree with," right? Right. Because that's the problem with jokes: They're not always funny for the person that is targeted by them. I cannot believe the steaming pile of hippie feel-good bullshit in this thread. You want the cops and courts to be funny, too?

 

Well, shut my mouth and call me reactionary, but I don't think firing this person is at all outside the realm of appropriate action. I really don't care how the woman reacted to it. No one has the ability to predict that. The world is not a fucking playground where you get to go around showing how funny you are all the time. Grow up and develop a sense of timely propriety. It's not that difficult.

Hmmm, I am at work so maybe it's not a good time to show an inordinate amount of attention to the client's sex toys.
See, easy.

Making light of it with your co-workers is one thing, writing a note about it is just stupid.
And people get fired for doing stupid shit all the time.

 

In return:



What next? Maybe they will outlaw vibrators in luggage to make their tasks easier.

The people are the government funders, you don't want them throwing money away. The more freedom you want, the more it will cost you. You can add it to your own expenses, when they use resources for hiring new staff.

 

I completely agree.
I can't see any other resolution to this, other than the offender losing their job.
Anyone with common sense would also have thought about the consequences before playing comedian with someone's luggage and private belongings.

 

Like I stated above saying it to the person, is one thing. Writing it and putting it on an official piece of paper and in the luggage is sheer stupidity. As Mixed stated people get fired for stupid shit on a daily basis. Saying stupid shit it would have been her word against the employee's and without proof just a literal he said/she said may not have led to discharge but rather some other lesser form of punishment (2 wks suspension without pay). But then again if he/she was that stupid to write the note then they probably thought that who could prove it was them. Then again saying it someone may overhear and then it becomes even a bigger issue. Sadly, I wonder how that person will explain their termination at a job interview. "well I worked for TSA and some lady had a vibrator in her luggage and I was trying to be a smart ass and wrote a stupid funny note on the official paper in her luggage saying "Get your freak on girl". I sincerely meant it as a joke but she sued for a couple hundred grand and it became a national issue and I was fired for having a sense of humor." That'll get that person hired.

Who knows. I think she over reacted and brought the publicity on for an eventual lawsuit.

 

so in other words, government workers should have to do even stupider shit than the rest of us to get fired because hiring people to replace them costs us more money?

 

That's fine and dandy if this is being done in public. But it wasn't. It was being done down in the bowels of the airport away from the eyes of the bag's owner and any supervision by anyone else. If this were being done upstairs in the security line, though, that still wouldn't change the fact that it's an inappropriate joke and incredibly stupid.

I'm guessing that I fly as much if not more than any other TFP'er (89 flights so far this year when I last checked), and most TSA agents are approachable and personable. I've joked with a few of them here and there about things ("you look thirsty - should I go buy a bottle of water so you can confiscate it?" brought down the house in Little Rock a few months ago). But if this is a joke, it isn't funny. Here's a guy making sex toy referrences to someone he doesn't know but whose address is readily available on the baggage tag. This is so far beyond the dictates of common sense that I can't believe that anyone ever thought it might be funny.

They can only ban things from checked luggage that can be shown to be dangerous on a plane. That list is exceedingly short and is comprised of things that are obvious dangers - radioactive material, white gas, fireworks, etc. If I recall correctly, adding things to this list literally takes an act of Congress.

pan6467, the TSA has limited liability and couldn't be successfully be sued under these circumstances. Congress created a nice little hidey-hole for them when they were created back in 2002. She could file suit, but it would be dismissed because of their governmental immunity.

 

WOW, won't even comment on that other than to say wow and shake my head.
--- merged: Nov 1, 2011 12:46 PM ---

I think what she was saying is if you pay someone what people at McD's, Wal*Mart, Subway, etc. You get that type of employee and thus whether right or wrong, they feel they don't make enough to live on or what their job is worth and thus you get fuck ups. YOU get what you pay for. You want better employees? Pay more and make it harder for them to leave and they'll care more about their job. Plain and simple. Otherwise, your spending more to train people and you have a revolving door of employees.