​Scott James writes a column for The Bay Citizen.

Jerry Cain put his iPhone into the side pocket of his laptop bag and placed it in the X-ray machine at San Francisco International Airport in December, but moments later when he retrieved his bag and headed to his flight, he discovered the phone was gone.

He immediately returned to the security checkpoint and scoured the area, to no avail. Then he asked the gate’s security agents for help.

No phones had been turned in, they said, and sent him away.

Next he hurried back to find me — his partner of 10 years — and we both returned to security, this time to speak with a supervisor. We explained what happened, and again the response was little more than a shrug.

Then I asked about filing a report, and insisted that the supervisor take my name and cellphone number, in case the phone was discovered. He reacted by instructing a gate agent to confiscate my belongings and to X-ray and search them, to see if I possessed the missing phone.