Shocking video shows just how easy it is to break into your suitcase - and leave it looking like it's never been touched



If you thought that locking your suitcase would prevent thieves from raiding your luggage, you're wrong.

This shocking video shows just how easy it is for baggage handlers to break into a locked suitcase and leave it looking like it's never been touched.

Lock specialist and American traveller 'bosnianbill' was inspired to make the video after a colleague had things stolen from his suitcase when flying from Africa to the US.

Passengers have long complained that suitcase locks are failing to protect luggage, with video showing how pens and paperclips can be used to break them.

But this latest technique shows how passengers can leave the airport completely unaware that their suitcase has been tampered with.



Once you have left the airport premises, it can be very hard to claim that your belongings have been stolen.



Bosnianbill shows how baggage handlers can simply use a ballpoint pen to split open a zip on a soft suitcase, help themselves to the contents, then simply slide the zip from one end to the other, to close the luggage back up again.

High security: Holidaymakers travelling to the US can only use TSA_approved locks, but both the locks and soft suitcases leave belongings vulnerable to thieves

After showing just how easy it is to break into the soft case, bosnianbill asks: 'How do you protect yourself? You don't use one of these suitcases first of all.'

Instead he recommends a hard-shell case which doesn't have zips and using solid secure locks.

While holidaymakers travelling to the US are told they need to use locks approved by the Transport Security Administration (TSA), so that cases can be searched if need be, this security expert says there is one way to avoid it.

Easy to open: The zips can be tampered with, then left to look like they haven't been touched

He claims that if you are on hand when your bag is scanned and they wish to open it, you simply hand over your keys on the spot, then re-lock your case straight after.

But with many people checking in bags and not seeing them until the end of the journey, the solid locks may not be practical - leading the TSA to cut them off altogether.











