TSA and the implant
As has been widely noted, airport security theater has caused an upsweep in theft. While largely this has been theft from unlocked suitcases, it has also been at security checkpoints.
As an example, a man recently was going to his mother’s funeral. When he went through the security checkpoint he imprudently dumped everything in his pockets in a tray to run through the X-ray machine, and stepped through the metal detector. Unfortunately, he had an early knee replacement made of ferrous metal, which set off the metal detector. He of course had a letter explaining this. During the time it took to explain this, someone else picked up all his items from his tray and walked off, apparently catching a plane right away. Since he had no ID with him – it had just been stolen – he was not allowed to board his flight, and missed his mother’s funeral.
The lesson to be learned from this is that when going through security you should only lose control of those items you are not allowed to keep in your control, and which might set of a metal detector. You should NOT put your wallet, passport, paper money, or anything else of value on the tray, on the assumption that anything you put down on the tray may never be seen again.
