[chippy]

This is anecdotal but it gets me thinking. Sometimes in the late 90s I stopped putting locks on my luggage. Locks were once or twice removed previously - and once the customs put a note saying they had done it. I was travelling to Europe, the east of Africa and various Caribbean countries. Nothing was stolen - but the key thing was me not storing anything too expensive in there. Generally all my expensive objects are delicate and will be transferred in my hand luggage.

Perhaps it's safety in numbers. Perhaps it's a kind of camouflage and not signalling anything of worth. Perhaps it's because the level of risk of theft is incredibly low.

[1stop]

Custom agents in Australia at least have a kind jack-tool that they shove in the side of the zip, and it opens it. They can then go through the bag and just rerun the zippers over it and it zips it back up. Doesn't matter if they are locked or not.

[tomswartz07]

> a kind of jack-tool

A ball point pen works great too. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5mvvZl6pLI

[CyberDildonics]

I'll ad to this not to use a designer or even fake designer luggage for your check on. Use a beat up piece of crap so the luggage handlers don't wonder what is in it.

It isn't unrealistic at this point though to put a camera and a battery into luggage and just have it record the entire trip.

[antsar]

Then they'll just steal the camera :)

[suvelx]

I don't put locks on my luggage either.

Instead I put an easily breakable cable tie on the zips as a tamper evident seal. The one time I've had a bag come back with it missing has been the time the TSA decided to inspect my bags.

vs a lock, which somebody can open and re-lock and I'd be none the wiser.

[grogenaut]

The tsa checks my snowboard bag every trip, both directions. Sucks for them, as it's full to the gills of sweaty sopping wet gear on the way home and I usually have to have someone sit on it to get it to zip up.

As a joke I would put those notes they leave when they inspect your bag in there. I was up to 22 of them when one stickler agent throw them all away except the new one. I was sad. It was fun to imagine them opening that bag every time I flew.

[wila]

It is really easy to open a cable tie unharmed, and lock it again with that same tie. Just push the "lock" down with a sharp object.

Besides that the TSA has cable ties too. It's not like you can't buy them off the shelve. In your example case the TSA clearly didn't bother spending the time to make it not look like they opened your bag, but it isn't a very reliable way to see if they opened your bag.

[zapu]

I put locks on luggages as a method of keeping the zippers from unzipping by themselves.

[kryps]

Make sure to fix the zippers in place. Otherwise it is very easy to still open the bag by just prying open the zippers and closing them again by moving the tied-together zippers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5mvvZl6pLI

[RealityVoid]

You can easly unlock and re-lock a cable tie. Not really tamper-evident material.

[okasaki]

What about if burn the head a bit?

[danieltillett]

This is a great idea. I think I am going to steal it next time I travel :)

[chinathrow]

Do you tag the cable tie or do you use normal off the shelf ones?

[chiph]

You can use the ones that have the tag molded in. Or just use a color other than black or clear.