The Uselessness of Luggage Locks

On my last cruise I was in the airport sitting outside of a news stand.  I noticed a woman sitting one bench over (about 15 feet away from me) leave her luggage to walk up to the news stand.  She did this about 5 minutes after hearing the announcement about not leaving your luggage unattended.  I thought to myself what a dumbass.  In my mind she was just asking for all sorts of trouble all because she couldn’t be bothered to pull her carry-on luggage into to the news stand.  Maybe she figured since she would only be a short distance away everything would be ok.  The biggest problem with that line of thinking is she walked into the store and didn’t have constant visibility of her belongings.  Being the good Samaritan that I am, I did keep an eye on her luggage to make sure no one did anything to her bags.  However, just by being lazy and careless she opened herself up to having her belongings stolen or something even worse. Imagine getting something added to your suitcase.  I can deal with losing a bag (we risk that every time we check our luggage), but being caught with illegal contraband someone has added to your carry on is a personal hell I never want to experience.

You may say, yeah it was pretty dumb to leave the suitcase but how could someone add something to it if she was only gone from it for a minute and the luggage was locked.   Up until recently I would have thought the same thing, until I saw how easy it is to bypass a luggage lock.  Much like car alarms and and theft deterrent clothing tags, luggage locks aren’t much of a hindrance to any “bad guy” who knows what they are doing.   Here is a video of just how easy it is for a thief to get into your luggage, even while using standard luggage locks.

As you can see someone with the mindset of a thief could open your bag, tamper with the contents and re-close the bag without you even knowing you were victimized.  While I doubt I will ever stop using my locks, my expectations have changed.  I will no longer look at them as a  security device, as you can see they are too easy to circumvent.  Like the big red “club” that people used on their cars the appearance of them will deter amateur thieves from stealing your luggage, but for professionals (or anyone with the internet), they aren’t even a speed bump.

The good news is all is not lost.  Luggage locks are still excellent at keeping suitcases from opening accidentally while being tossed around by the airline.

Related posts:

1. I Guess I Should Pack Now – Less Is More
2. Tips For Flying Out of San Juan International Airport

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