A Cautionary Tale

There has been a gap in my postings, and a good reason for it. Yesterday I said goodbye to the Netherlands and flew back into Liverpool with EasyJet, which was not a problem. Neither were the rail journeys out to Schiphol and back to Crewe. Everything in the garden was moderately weed free. Until I opened my hold bag.

I know, I know, put a camera in the hold luggage – what a silly boy! Ooh, you shouldn’t have done that! Well, thanks in advance for the lashings of hindsight, but that isn’t the point being made: it’s that you might as well get used not only to having the criminally inclined dip into your personal space, but that the people you expect to protect you from this kind of thing won’t lift a finger to help.

First of all, there is the handling agent: this is the company that does the non-flight work for carriers like EasyJet, and at Schiphol it’s a company called Menzies Aviation. And they don’t want to know. Why is this? Well, once you’ve taken your case off the luggage belt at your destination, and walked out of the airport with it, you’re stuffed. You have to check it out before leaving the airport – and how many of you do that? No hands raised? So Menzies Aviation don’t need to bother, and they won’t.

What about the carrier? Ever tried to find an email address for EasyJet? You get to fill in a web based form and hope. So far I’m two automated replies in, and not a sound. But there’s always the police, isn’t there? Brace yourself – for the average punter, here’s the biggest waste of space going.

Merseyside Police at Allerton deal with the Airport. And all they are prepared to do is to allocate an incident log number. Their “policy” is that the investigation has to be done by the cops in the country where the flight originated, and this bit you’ll love: the Police at Schiphol won’t take any action unless the person making the complaint is actually in the Netherlands.

The officer I spoke to at Schiphol was at least honest: when I suggested that this meant unless I headed back to the Netherlands, I was screwed, she admitted simply “Yes”.

So, summing up, the carrier won’t reply, their handling agents have washed their hands of any responsibility, and both countries’ Police forces refuse to do anything about it. Which means that, not only are the cops failing the general public, but more significantly, the criminally inclined of Greater Amsterdam can thieve away, safe in the knowledge that the cops won’t bother them.

And around the globe, police forces wonder why the public get cynical.