Der Back! Da Bullets, Dat Is!

[OnMyWay]

This story was posted on the U.S. visa forum I follow, on June 6.  Apparently, the bullet scam is still out there.  What a day they had!

Hey everyone. My fiancée got her K1 visa and we successfully made it home to the USA last night, but we had some scares along the way.

Our flight out of Manila was Sunday morning at 9:30 am. About 6am, we took the elevator down to check out of the Airbnb and get a taxi to NAIA. The elevator then got stuck and powered down on the 5th floor. This is somewhat of a nightmare for me, and I was picturing us missing our flight. I was already sweating, now stuck in this tiny, hot elevator for who knows how long? I can't imagine the elevator techs in the Philippines are going to be easy to conjure at 6am on a Sunday. I sounded the alarm from inside the elevator, and finally one of the residents on the 5th floor woke up and got security, who opened the door from the outside. We were only stuck for about 30 mins.

We made it to the airport and proceeded to go through the initial security checkpoint with all our bags. The security officer noticed something in the scan of my fiancee's bag, and pulled us aside to investigate. One officer started filming everything on his phone, which scared me a bit. They emptied and searched the bag, but came up with nothing. Then they re-scanned the empty bag and now noticed a second suspicious item. In the liner (!!!) of the bag, accessible via zipper that she or I had never opened, the security officer found two 9mm bullets right in front of my eyes. 

I bought this bag, a typical medium-sized piece of luggage, in the Philippines for my fiancee in 2019, and it was never out of her possession. I read stories online about airport security planting bullets and then extorting money to let the traveler go. Airport security involved a police officer, who grilled us for about 30 minutes. They ultimately believed us and let us go. We know that someone planted those bullets, but we can't figure out who or when.

We made our flight with a little time to spare, but I got a few gray hairs out of it. Everything else went smoothly, and hallelujah, we made it home.

•  

Edited August 7, 2022 by OnMyWay

[Freebie]

I think its called Tanim Bala or something like that.  Bullet planted by some piece of shit in airport security looking for a payday.

Whenever I travel with gf, we have a routine whereby she will go through the bag scanner line first , I will wait, she will watch me load bags and then we both collect at other end, thus attempting to ensure that no one touches anything.

 

"The “laglag-bala” or “tanim-bala” scheme allegedly involves airport security personnel who plant live ammunition or bala inside the luggage of passengers, mostly foreigners and OFWs. Once caught, passengers are asked to pay these personnel money so that a case won't be filed against them."

[Youngster]

I guess it’s back to wrapping my luggages again. 

[softail]

Sounds like a great send off…..you two now have a great story…..congratulations 😀

[JJReyes]

On 8/7/2022 at 9:13 PM, Youngster said:

I guess it’s back to wrapping my luggages again. 

On certain luggage, a less expensive alternative is using a plastic tie clasp on the zipper meeting point.  They would need to cut the plastic to open.  More likely, if inspectors see this, they will look for a more vulnerable person you can distract to look the other way while the bullets are planted.