Nairobi Airport Security Officer’s Bribe
byMy sister had the most terrifying experience in Nairobi a few weeks ago. “As you know,” she said to her jet-setting family members, “flying…
My sister had the most terrifying experience in Nairobi a few weeks ago. “As you know,” she said to her jet-setting family members, “flying…
I wrote about this ages ago, way back in Hotel Oddity #6, but back then the idiotic installation was in the Miami Radisson Mart…
Our Data, Our Selves They know who you are. They know what you buy, where you live, where you work, where you go in…
The question we’re most asked is… where should I carry my valuables? What’s the safest place to carry money? And the ambiguous answer is……
Another ring of airport luggage thieves has been arrested, this time at Los Angeles International Airport. So? Big deal. I’m not impressed. Not relieved….
A lightning bolt of fear shoots down your spine when, returning late to your hotel room, you see the door is not fully closed….
It happens. For the most part, it’s rare. At the risk of tempting fate, I’ll admit that we’ve never been victims of hotel theft,…
So much personal information on display at quaint, old-fashioned hotels like the one we recently stayed at in Bali. Which rooms are occupied? What…
For various reasons, my luggage is hard to steal from. I take hundreds of flights every year, and so far, thank goodness, nothing has…
Never thought I’d be on a ship trying to outrun Somali pirates. Bob and I recently sailed across the Arabian sea in pirate-infested waters….
There goes our iPad. Swallowed by the security conveyor belt, immediately under the prominent sign that says “The tray stays until it is emptied.”…
I thought Kevin Mitnick was a friend of mine—but that was before I read his forthcoming book, Ghost in the Wires. Kevin’s the consummate…
People often share their credit card anxiety with me. They’re afraid their cards will be lost or stolen and huge bills will be run…
My nephew, planning an extended jaunt through Vietnam, applied for a visa. What he received horrified him. A bilingual letter authorized his entry and…
When you check into a hotel and are handed a key to a room that turns out to be already occupied, you have to…
No reports expand on the claim that this ballsy Asian impostor “swapped boarding passes with a U.S. citizen and passenger who was born in…
Before a lengthy stay in a certain hotel in Italy this summer, I searched for reviews of it online. Among the raves on TripAdvisor,…
“Door-pushers” are a problem in some cities. These thieves saunter down the long corridors of giant hotels with their arms outstretched, methodically pushing on…
Is it legal to take photos at airport security checkpoints, or not? Occasionally I’ll politely ask a TSA officer if I may take a…
For the last week, articles on the killing of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, have been a veritable smorgasbord of intriguing intelligence reports….
See anything wrong with the chain lock on this door at Miami’s Radisson Mart Plaza Hotel? It’s mounted backwards! Upside-down. It’s useless this way…
How safe is the safe in your hotel room? Not safe at all, it turns out, unless you factor in the odds. Odds are,…
The Hilton Tokyo-Bay, aka Japan’s Disneyland Hilton, was shockingly behind the times when we visited. Our paper electronic room keys had our room number…
We checked into a hotel last month and plodded through the tedious check-in procedure in a daze. It was a Millennium Hotel, but I…
Brother-in-law, though a frequent flyer, forgot to move his pocket knife from his carry-on to his checked bag. He groaned when TSA discovered it….
What would you do if you opened the safe behind the hotel manager’s desk and found your passports gone? One woman took creative action….
A reader of this blog recently wrote to me and described a suspicious encounter: In Dublin, I noticed a tall young man in a…
A former mortgage broker put 40 boxes of customers’ personal information into a Las Vegas dumpster. It was December 2006, but we all knew…
Loot ‘n scoot: Through my police friends, I learned of another devious M.O. resulting in theft from hotel rooms. The thief simply poses as…