RE: [Leica] Security in U.K.

["Tim Atherton" <timphoto@nt.sympatico.ca>]

BTW,

If you are ever so foolish to leave your bag unattended at Heathrow (worse
still if it has your Leica in it!), forget about it., especially if there
have been recent bombs/scares.

They will most likely move it somewhere safe - if possible - and blow it up.
And you will have little recourse, because there are plenty of warning
signs...!

Tim A


> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of wvl
> Sent: August 5, 1999 5:13 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: [Leica] Security in U.K.
>
>
> > > Despite the horror stories presented here, I have experienced some
> > amazing lack of vigilance. In 1985 (one year after the Brighton Bomb) I
> > was allowed past the barriers and into Downing street without being
> > searched where I then stood about 15 feet from the Prime Minister and
> > took pictures, often digging around inside a rather large camera bag
> > that really could have held anything (even a Leica).
>
>
> In1996 I was walking along the Thames in London at night and looking for
> a public toilet. As matters got more urgent I approached a side door of
> the Houses of Parliment and asked the bobby if I could use the toilet.
> He said nobody could enter the door because it was a police passage and
> Nelson Mandela was speaking to Parliment within. However, he made an
> exception and let me use the police toilet which was down the hall. I
> was allowed unsupervised entry and my backpack was ignored. I wandered
> around  a while without encountering anybody in the passages. I could
> have been Guy Fawkes!
>
> At Heathrow, however, I have always encountered serious security and
> once had to submit to checked luggage search because a stainless steel
> developing tank tooked a lot like a land mine on the scanner.
>
> Bill Lawlor
>