Shooty's News and Current events

American travelers are finding blades planted in their luggage, and it looks as if federal workers - make that employees - are culpable.

"The question I have is, 'What's the point of tossing items into people's suitcases?'" David Grindle of Bloomington, Ind., told the Herald-Times. "Is the TSA doing this on purpose in an attempt to catch someone else? I wish I knew."

After Grindle and his family returned from an airline trip to Florida, they found wire cutters in one of their bags, along with a note that said a screener from the Transportation Security Administration had inspected the suitcase.

The family immediately thought of Dorrine and George Theodore, also residents of Bloomington, who found a knife with a 10-inch blade - and a note from the TSA - in their luggage after they flew home from California last month.

"I've been to Europe, where they search your bags in front of you, and I have no trouble with that," Grindle said. "But it makes me nervous having my bags searched without me being present, especially when inspectors are flipping things in my bags that don't belong to me. What would stop them from putting illegal drugs in my bag?"

TSA mouthpiece Chris Rhatigan said the reports mystified her. "If I could answer that question, I'd be rich. They could have been honest mistakes. Perhaps the bags somehow popped open during their travels, and someone dropped something inside. I honestly don't know."

(end of excerpt)