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TSA Reportedly Demands To Inspect Man’s Luggage For Bitcoin

25 points by kanche 13y ago

colund 13y ago
I would guess that this is just a joke, but a fun one.
marvin 13y ago
Sounds like a new version of "you have been selected for a random search" to me.
ewoodrich 13y ago
"When Baker asked how much he thought his alleged tokens were worth, the agent responded, “It fluctuates all the time.” Either a surprisingly well informed (and a tad snarky) TSA officer (who inexplicably dwells on the possibility of vanishingly rare physical Bitcoin), or a tounge-in-cheek satire presented as fact. I suspect the latter, unless the supposed victim can produce any non-anecdotal evidence to corroborate the story. Edit: It seems strange to me that TSA would be making such a big deal about searching for Bitcoin, when as far as I'm aware, limitations on transfer of cash only apply to international flights, and would be handled by actual law enforcement or Customs, not TSA. And other than the author being a bit of a dick in his supposed TSA interaction, I really don't see how this situation would have been plausible.
xeroxmalf 13y ago
"Update: A TSA spokesman says they have been unable to find the agents in question or verify the incident. I’m told Baker’s story is complicated by the fact that protocol would be to contact law enforcement if someone was taking large amounts of cash for a suspected purpose, rather than request additional screening." So basically, he most likely had some 'TSA' agents that were trying to rob him.
- asdfaoeu 13y ago
  More likely he just made it up and techcrunch lapped it straight up
- ck2 13y ago
  The TSA denies virtually every incident. It's a pattern. Their high school graduates are perfect people, theft included. It's like the FBI, in 100+ years, every single shooting incident of theirs upon self-investigation, every single agent was magically justified. Even the completely unarmed guy that recently was shot 7 times at close range including the back of the head. All cleared. Just ignore how they deported every witness, refused to release any medical examiner results, etc.
ck2 13y ago
This smells a lot like agents getting a bonus for seizing cash over $10k which the TSA keeps. When a chain of people start aggressively enforcing laws for their own gain without giving a damn what the original intent of the law was, very strange things start happening in society.
- ewoodrich 13y ago
  The TSA has over 50,000 employees serving transit related functions. If they were "getting a bonus" for seizing cash, shouldn't we have heard from >1 officer who was complicit in this? I understand the motivations for skepticism over TSA practices, but I don't think that justifies baseless speculation about unlawful institutional practices like you describe (LEOs don't receive a bonus tied to civil forfeiture, which would be far more likely)
  - ck2 13y ago
    How do you explain the excessive seizures of everything by the TSA? They auction massive lots of things they take from people, where do you think all that money goes? Certainly not back to taxpayers. If there is not a bonus, then it is something more subtle like a performance review perk. Unless it just boils down to TSA agents enjoying being a-holes. Remember the TSA has not prevented one single incident, in fact they constantly fail security tests, which is also swept under the rug. The TSA is theater, pure and simple, and they've learned to put on a big show or face extinction, starting at the individual job level all the way up the organization. I am also pretty sure they are astroturfing against negative comments about them (not accusing you of that, just saying it seems to be a pattern on the internet).
  - 1337biz 13y ago
    Due to recent events the government has maneuvered itself in a situation where any rumor of misbehavior has become a realistic expectation. Even forms of denial are most likely worded by an army of lawyers leaving it pretty much open like a lyrical poem where you have to put in much guesswork to figure out potential "true" meanings thereof.
qwerta 13y ago
I traveled a lot in post-soviet countries. Once I was held for several hours by military police for losing my way into restricted military area. But never ever anyone took my fingerprints, except TSA agents...
- ewoodrich 13y ago
  At risk of appearing to be some sort of TSA shill in this thread, you are not actually fingerprinted for international travel by TSA: "United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (commonly referred to as US-VISIT) is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) management system. The system involves the collection and analysis of biometric data (such as fingerprints), which are checked against a database to track individuals deemed by the United States to be terrorists, criminals, and illegal immigrants." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-VISIT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-VISIT
  - ubernostrum 13y ago
    And the US is not the only country which fingerprints non-citizens on arrival. I know Japan does, and possibly other countries too.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
efoto 13y ago
This story sounded a lot like the one that happend to me in 1984. It's rather hard to describe a place I was working at the time beyond saying it was a restricted access area. Anyway, I was detained by security for walking out from the gates with a floppy disk and a programming manual. I had to explain what a floppy disk is. It wasn't actually very funny, mostly because my quarterly bonus was at stake. The funny part was to read the incident report, that said I was detained with one "manual" and one "information".
Bahamut 13y ago
That is quite a twisted interpretation of that law/regulation/etc. - bitcoin in itself is not cash. Also as a result of that logic, no traveler who owns lots of bitcoins would be allowed to travel on a plane - how the heck does that make sense?
LyndsySimon 13y ago
I admit the title had be curious, but upon consideration, I suppose it's possible that the TSA employee (I refuse to call TSA employees "agents") saw something small and round on the Xray, and thought they might be physical Bitcoins. Some of the early ones enclose private keys to wallets containing 25 BTC or more. That would easily be more than the $10k limit. Please don't take the above as my condoning the employees actions, the existence of the TSA, governments, or any other entity whose existence is based upon the initiation of force against others.

25 points by kanche 13y ago

colund 13y ago

I would guess that this is just a joke, but a fun one.

marvin 13y ago

Sounds like a new version of "you have been selected for a random search" to me.

ewoodrich 13y ago

"When Baker asked how much he thought his alleged tokens were worth, the agent responded, “It fluctuates all the time.” Either a surprisingly well informed (and a tad snarky) TSA officer (who inexplicably dwells on the possibility of vanishingly rare physical Bitcoin), or a tounge-in-cheek satire presented as fact. I suspect the latter, unless the supposed victim can produce any non-anecdotal evidence to corroborate the story. Edit: It seems strange to me that TSA would be making such a big deal about searching for Bitcoin, when as far as I'm aware, limitations on transfer of cash only apply to international flights, and would be handled by actual law enforcement or Customs, not TSA. And other than the author being a bit of a dick in his supposed TSA interaction, I really don't see how this situation would have been plausible.

xeroxmalf 13y ago

"Update: A TSA spokesman says they have been unable to find the agents in question or verify the incident. I’m told Baker’s story is complicated by the fact that protocol would be to contact law enforcement if someone was taking large amounts of cash for a suspected purpose, rather than request additional screening." So basically, he most likely had some 'TSA' agents that were trying to rob him.

asdfaoeu 13y ago
More likely he just made it up and techcrunch lapped it straight up
ck2 13y ago
The TSA denies virtually every incident. It's a pattern. Their high school graduates are perfect people, theft included. It's like the FBI, in 100+ years, every single shooting incident of theirs upon self-investigation, every single agent was magically justified. Even the completely unarmed guy that recently was shot 7 times at close range including the back of the head. All cleared. Just ignore how they deported every witness, refused to release any medical examiner results, etc.

ck2 13y ago

This smells a lot like agents getting a bonus for seizing cash over $10k which the TSA keeps. When a chain of people start aggressively enforcing laws for their own gain without giving a damn what the original intent of the law was, very strange things start happening in society.

ewoodrich 13y ago
The TSA has over 50,000 employees serving transit related functions. If they were "getting a bonus" for seizing cash, shouldn't we have heard from >1 officer who was complicit in this? I understand the motivations for skepticism over TSA practices, but I don't think that justifies baseless speculation about unlawful institutional practices like you describe (LEOs don't receive a bonus tied to civil forfeiture, which would be far more likely)
- ck2 13y ago
  How do you explain the excessive seizures of everything by the TSA? They auction massive lots of things they take from people, where do you think all that money goes? Certainly not back to taxpayers. If there is not a bonus, then it is something more subtle like a performance review perk. Unless it just boils down to TSA agents enjoying being a-holes. Remember the TSA has not prevented one single incident, in fact they constantly fail security tests, which is also swept under the rug. The TSA is theater, pure and simple, and they've learned to put on a big show or face extinction, starting at the individual job level all the way up the organization. I am also pretty sure they are astroturfing against negative comments about them (not accusing you of that, just saying it seems to be a pattern on the internet).
- 1337biz 13y ago
  Due to recent events the government has maneuvered itself in a situation where any rumor of misbehavior has become a realistic expectation. Even forms of denial are most likely worded by an army of lawyers leaving it pretty much open like a lyrical poem where you have to put in much guesswork to figure out potential "true" meanings thereof.

qwerta 13y ago

I traveled a lot in post-soviet countries. Once I was held for several hours by military police for losing my way into restricted military area. But never ever anyone took my fingerprints, except TSA agents...

ewoodrich 13y ago
At risk of appearing to be some sort of TSA shill in this thread, you are not actually fingerprinted for international travel by TSA: "United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (commonly referred to as US-VISIT) is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) management system. The system involves the collection and analysis of biometric data (such as fingerprints), which are checked against a database to track individuals deemed by the United States to be terrorists, criminals, and illegal immigrants." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-VISIT http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-VISIT
- ubernostrum 13y ago
  And the US is not the only country which fingerprints non-citizens on arrival. I know Japan does, and possibly other countries too.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

efoto 13y ago

This story sounded a lot like the one that happend to me in 1984. It's rather hard to describe a place I was working at the time beyond saying it was a restricted access area. Anyway, I was detained by security for walking out from the gates with a floppy disk and a programming manual. I had to explain what a floppy disk is. It wasn't actually very funny, mostly because my quarterly bonus was at stake. The funny part was to read the incident report, that said I was detained with one "manual" and one "information".

Bahamut 13y ago

That is quite a twisted interpretation of that law/regulation/etc. - bitcoin in itself is not cash. Also as a result of that logic, no traveler who owns lots of bitcoins would be allowed to travel on a plane - how the heck does that make sense?

LyndsySimon 13y ago

I admit the title had be curious, but upon consideration, I suppose it's possible that the TSA employee (I refuse to call TSA employees "agents") saw something small and round on the Xray, and thought they might be physical Bitcoins. Some of the early ones enclose private keys to wallets containing 25 BTC or more. That would easily be more than the $10k limit. Please don't take the above as my condoning the employees actions, the existence of the TSA, governments, or any other entity whose existence is based upon the initiation of force against others.