I
received the following from a passenger on an 8-day cruise aboard
Diamond Princess (departed San Pedro 3/5/05) to the Mexican Riviera:
On our way back onto the ship after
spending the day in Puerta Vallarta, the Security Specialist on the
ship stole or lost our compact 35 mm camera, while my husband was being
"wanded". I will attach below a part of a letter we are sending
to the head of Princess to give you an idea of what occurred:
"We have documented this
unfortunate event with a number of the staff, but in sum, this is what
took place. Returning to the ship from a
long walk back from Puerto Vallarta and in line to go thru security, my
husband B removed his steel toed boots to assist check in, but
something triggered the alarm as he went through the checkpoint.
I had already gone through without incident and was watching his
processing. R, a “Canadian Security Specialist” moved him to the
side (I joined them), and began to use the wand along B’s person.
Something caused beeping, and B reached in his jacket pocket, pulled
out a pen, and then the Security Specialist wanded again and something
else caused beeping. Then R put his hand
into my husband’s jacket pockets while he was wearing it,
with out any warning. B said he felt extremely uncomfortable
and even violated to be touched in this manner, without any notice
first. While it was happening, I felt really uncomfortable and
that it was terribly inappropriate for the Security Officer to be
reaching into his pockets, so I asked the Officer to stop and I offered
to do so instead, which I did. B then took the jacket off, and we
proceeded to figure out what was setting off the sensor. B
realized he had film and a compact 35 mm camera, and R took possession
of the camera to run the wand over it, and this was the last we saw it.
This process of wanding,
reaching and taking of B’s possessions was disorganized,
awkward and chaotic to say the least. There was no
counter/table or basket offered to accomplish this in an organized and
secure fashion. When we were finally cleared, we walked into the
hallway of the ship just a few feet away for B to put his shoes back on
and reorganize, and we realized that the Security Specialist, never
gave us our camera back, as he had last held it. When I walked
back to him to retrieve it, R claimed he didn't know specifically what
I was referring to...as though his actions in the previous 5 minutes
were a confusion. I checked the security area thoroughly and
queried the other security officers to no avail."
We are filing for reimbursement of the
camera, but this incident upset us for several days and made us
hesitant to go out to port again.
The passenger's
initial letters to Princess were given a form letter-type
response. They then wrote to Princess with copies to two dozen
travel and security orgaizations. After some delay, Princess
finally agreed to pay $250 for the camera's loss (the maximum of their
insurance coverage) and gave a $100 credit for the couple's next
cruise. The Federal Maritime Commission's (fmc.gov) Office of Consumer Affairs & Dispute
Resolution Service is also looking into the matter.