Irrelevant, but irritating

fundingfather
Tue, 15 Aug 2006 16:40:12 +0000

Dadguy,

The more I think about your scenario the more impossibly remote it becomes. To get an elderly person to act as your mule through security you would have to get access to her bag before she went through security. You would also need to make sure that you had a ticket on the same flight that she was on. In order for this to happen, you would have to get in line at the ticket purchase counter behind an elderly person. Then, after eves-dropping on where she was buying her ticket to, you would have to quickly buy your ticket to the same destination and then try to catch up with her before she went through security to make the swap. If she walks right to the security point without stopping and leaving her bag unattended, you are out of luck. Also, since you would likely be part of a team, you would have to hope that your team members can happen upon similar mules going on the same flight. If you and your partners fail at any of this before the mules go through security you are out of luck and you have just purchased a ticket for nothing.

You are an actuary - on which sets of rules would you place your money: the current situation where little old ladies are searched with the same frequency as middle-eastern men or the one where the terrorists have to have a series of extremely low odds to take place before their plan can be successful?