Once upon a time while vacationing in San Diego, I left the visegrip in my camera bag.
Visegrips are a kind of locking pliers and mine were camera modified. Some bolts were welded onto them so a small ball head could be mounted, and they could be used as a tripod base. TSA was not amused when I tried to pass with this heavy, black anodized thing. I was with my family, so I gave them the rest of the camera bag and ran back to the front counter. The check-in clerks came up with a spare box of about 1 cubic foot, but no dunnage. I put the visegrips (about the size of a hand) into the box, added my name/address, and sealed it with borrowed tape. Then they checked the box for me to Chicago. It was essentially an empty box with a 1-2 pound metal thing inside. Shake it and the visegrips bounced from side to side. The visegrips made it with me to Chicago, but kept on traveling with the plane. Nobody thought too seriously of an old cardboard box in the cargo bay. I squealed for my custom made visegrips, and they returned to Chicago some days later. I try to get the camera bag 'repacked' before I go thru security now. Regards, Bob S. On Dec 4, 2007 7:38 AM, frank theriault <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Dec 3, 2007 6:05 PM, Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > that's theft. > > Well, what they said to me wasn't quite theft. > > They were basically saying, "You're not getting on the plane with that > U-lock. It's too late to check it in your luggage (which has already > been loaded). You can keep your lock, if you wish to miss your > flight." They weren't actually taking it from me, they were allowing > me to give it to them, so I could get on that airplane. ;-) > > FWIW, they did say that I could quick run back to give the lock to the > "person who drove me to the airport" so they could mail it to me; > problem is, I took public transit. Besides, for the cost of postage > (it was quite a heavy lock) and possible "import duties" (you know, to > protect the burgeoning Canadian bicycle lock industry), it was cheaper > for me to just buy a new one upon arrival home. > > They would have held it for a brief period of time so someone could > come to the airport to retrieve it, but again, that would not have > been feasible or cost-effective (see above). > > While it may have been constructive theft, it wasn't legally stealing. > > cheers, > frank > -- > "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
