TSA searches valet parked car

[The Straight Story]

TSA searches valet parked car


Rochester, N.Y. -- She says she had no warning that someone was going to search her car after she left to catch her flight. So the woman contacted News10NBC.

We found out it happened to her because she valet parked her car. Those are the only cars that get inspected.

So if security feels it is necessary to search some cars in the name of safety, why not search all of them?

Laurie Iacuzza walked to her waiting car at the Greater Rochester International Airport after returning from a trip and that's when she found it -- a notice saying her car was inspected after she left for her flight. She said, “I was furious. They never mentioned it to me when I booked the valet or when I picked up the car or when I dropped it off.”

Iacuzza's car was inspected by valet attendants on orders from the TSA. But why only valet parked cars? That's what News10NBC wanted to ask the TSA director about. We reached him by phone.

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S3101080.shtml?cat=566

[hobbit709]

1. Police state mentality.

[KG]

2. but, but, we don't live in a police/surveillance state!

[trumad]

3. Damn Valet...

[The Straight Story]

4. My daughter and I just watched Ferris a few nights ago :) (nt)

[backscatter712]

10. Oh you have nothing to worry about. I'm a professional. n/t

[Pholus]

5. Never leave your insurance cards/registration/old mail in your parked cars.

After all, parking your car at the airport is an admission that you are not home and you don't need to advertise your home address. It's nice that there was a TSA note on this car, but that doesn't always happen and this proves that when you hand the key to the valet you actually don't know how many people you're implicitly trusting with the knowledge that your home is currently unoccupied.

I've started thinking of the value of "shrinkage" from TSA agents, both "legitimate" (like I miss untold small fluid containers and my pocket knife -- a moment's carelessness in packing) and "outright theft" (like a watch my daughter gave me went missing IN THE SECURITY LINE and some newly purchased clothing disappeared from checked luggage). I have supported the TSA to the tune of about $50/year since 2001 in confiscated/stolen items. I certainly don't consider that lost money as having made me any more safe.

I certainly wouldn't trust a random TSA agent with certain knowledge that my house is unoccupied. And that is another problem with the surveillance state we're building -- the watchers are not themselves personally trustworthy people, nor is is there a system that places realistic checks on how they can use the information they collect.

[Nye Bevan]

7. Also, if you have a GPS, don't program "HOME" as your actual home address.

Especially if you have an automatic garage door.

I have mine programmed to the end of the street.

[Pholus]

8. It does pay to drive a junker these days...

No integrated GPS. But I would certainly have missed that one! Fortunately our twisty turning street is strangely screwed up and houses on opposite sides of the street are staggered in numbers by two-three hundred -- even with the street address most service/delivery people end up having to call for directions for the last couple blocks.

So there is another problem with the surveillance state - you end up having to act like a deep cover spy just to protect yourself and your property and in so doing you become suspicious.
.

[nilram]

11. good idea, though I'm wondering

what happens when you press your garage door opener from the end of the street?

[pinboy3niner]

14. Not to worry...

...you just alerted the NSA.

[JimDandy]

19. Excellent post and tips.

[think]

6. everyone knows terrorists always request valet parking....

[JimDandy]

21. Yes. It's such a ridiculous assertion by the TSA.

In fact, the best way to insure that someone doesn't try to leave a car with a bomb in it curbside at the airport, with a valet service, would be to post copious notices that the valet sevice will search the cars.

And yet, the TSA didn't do that. How is that keeping anyone safer?

Who actually are the people using valet parking services at U.S. airports? Not tourists (who use rental cars) or terrorists, but American citizens and residents who live here and need a car to get home with on their return. Hmmm. Yet ANOTHER instance where Americans' private property was getting searched without informing them about it.

[think]

22. I was ludicrous in my response

nice catch

[JimDandy]

23. Yes. .. I was waivering btw leaving

just an 'LOL' or using the opportunity to expound on the TSA's crazy explanation and, well, you see what won out. Sorry... there are a few things that set me off...and the government's invasion of our privacy is one of them.

[JimDandy]

9. Third-party access.

Last edited Thu Jul 18, 2013, 10:57 PM - Edit history (1)

That's probably what they are going to claim entitled them to conduct a search. Sort of like metadata... Because you give access to your phone data to a third party (the telephone cimpany) your car is no longer private property and the govt can search it.

The TSA's claim that they search the valet cars because those cars may sit for 1/2 hr to an hour, directly in front of the airport, would be more believable, if the cars were searched before the customer leaves the keys in the car and walks off. 30 seconds later they can be long gone and then...BOOM!

But the TSA is implying that the valet searches the car immediately (takes about 30 secs) and THEN lets it sit for 1/2 an hour to an hour before they get around to moving it. Riiiiight. If they are so worried about a bombing, why not use those 30 seconds to immediately MOVE THE CAR!

What actually happens at most valet parking, is that the car sits there for the 1/2 hour to an hour because there aren't enough drivers to move the car immediately.

[msanthrope]

12. It's not third party access--it's that when you agree to use the valet service, you agree to the

search. You have the option of not using the valet service.

[JimDandy]

15. That wasn't what this woman said.

She was not notified in any way beforehand that they would be searching her car. The third-party access comment was for her scenario.

I've never used a valet service that has stated in their agreement that my car would be searched. Have you?
In any case, this valet service has now posted notice that they are going to search the cars, apparently under the instruction of the TSA to do so. Someone should monitor these curbside airport valet services to see how long it takes them to start each search, after a car has been turned over to them.

This is third-party access. Irregardless of there now being a search agreement, it is interesting to me, as a hypothetical, whether this type of third-party access could be used as a legal argument for conducting a govt search, in much the same way that the phone companies agreed to hand over our phone data to the NSA who posit that third-party access to it eliminates any right to privacy.

[msanthrope]

16. There was a sign at the valet stand. Yes. I have had my car searched by a valet service. If you

park at certain events, at certain buildings, your car will be searched.

Let me give you two examples---I spent the Millennium in Times Square. My car was searched thoroughly by the police and the parking service because I parked at the Port Authority. I was not forced to park there. I chose to.

My last visit to a government building in the DC area involved a search of my car. Again...I chose to park there, and could have gone elsewhere.

She chose to use the valet...she plays by the rules. Simple.

[JimDandy]

18. The sign wasn't there when she dropped off her car.

No such 'rules' were ever made aware to her. (Did you watch the video or read the MailOnline's article?) The sign appeared sometime after she contacted the news. The valet service refused to answer the news reporter's question as to when they posted the notice in their window. Clearly someone messed up by not notifying customers of the searches.

Those examples you gave didn't sound like searches conducted by a valet service. They sound like exampes of searches required when you are still in your car and are entering a venue or a govt facility. I am well aware of those kind of searches, as are most of us, especially at govt blds.

I reiterate, I have never been notified by any valet service that they were going to search my car if I left it with them. Would you please PM with the names of valet services you are familiar with that have such a search policy. Thanks!

[uppityperson]

13. Here's the link to LBN thread on this. I'd like to know what "inspected" or "searched" means.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014541840

[pinboy3niner]

17. I don't blame TSA. A car parked by a Frenchman is always suspicious!

Freedom Parking!

[snooper2]

20. She'll be okay in the morning

Somebody spent time writing an article on this...then somebody had to spend time reviewing it...

Now we are wasting bytes commenting on it. How the World turns LOL.

[Major Nikon]

24. ...

[SheilaT]

26. Personally, I never use valet parking.

That's because I drive a stick and I don't trust the kids who valet park to know how to engage a clutch and then shift, and I'm not about to let them learn on my car.

That said, this is the kind of thing that's in a bizarre way quite hilarious. Not that I blame the woman for being angry. But the underlying notion that valet parked cars, and only valet parked cars need to be searched at that airport.

I was an airline employee back in the 1970's, before any sort of security at all. I was around when we first started security, and with what's happened in the past twelve years, I simply refuse to fly, because I won't put up with the bullshit that's the TSA. What they are doing is theater, pure and simple, although I suppose the rank and file TSA people at the airport might honestly feel that their job matters and keeps us safer.

At this point, the terrorists have won.