If you like to keep your luggage close to you and are consistently paranoid about someone breaking into it, then this video won’t do much to ease your anxiety. A New York man showed how simple it is to break into luggage.
“This is how to open a suitcase that’s locked. Now it doesn’t matter what type of lock you have. Because all you need is a pen,” TikToker @trickstergrandpashow starts off his viral video, which has 21,000 views.
To demonstrate the efficacy of this simple break-in maneuver, he hovers the tip of the pen over the luggage’s zipper. He presses the pen tip between the rows of teeth in the zipper.
All It Takes Is A Pen
It easily breaks right open.
“And you’re going to take the pen, and you’re going to stick it into the zipper like that. Now once it’s in the zipper there, you can actually slide this all the way,” he says.
To further delineate how simple the method is, he uses his hands to pry the now separated zipper apart, leaving the luggage’s contents ripe for the picking.
“You can get into the suitcase, get whatever you want out of it,” he tells viewers.
The TikToker then shows how the zipper can be cinched back together. This means that someone can get into your bag, and you’ll be none the wiser.
“Now if you want to close this back up and leave no evidence that it was ever opened, you just slide the whole zipper all the way to the end and back.” Again, as he sounds off this advice, he performs the task in real time. And sure enough, it works: The luggage is completely sealed.
‘And It’s Closed Back Up’
Trickster Grandpa isn’t the first person to highlight this hack on social media. A TSA agent also issued a public service announcement regarding this easily compromised design staple of travel luggage. “With just a pen, you are actually able to breach a suitcase’s security,” he says, holding a pen to the zipper on a piece of hard-shell luggage.
So how does one ensure strangers aren’t gaining access to their personal belongings? According to the TSA employee in the aforementioned video, opting for bags with covers over the zippers is a good idea. He tells viewers that this provides an added level of security. Now that’s not going to stop someone who really wants to get into your bag from doing so. All they’ll need to do is find a way to cut that cover open to get at the zipper or destroy the body of the luggage itself. But doing either of these is much more difficult and will leave clear evidence that the luggage has been tampered with.
Suitcases Without Zippers
Of course, the easiest way to make sure no one takes the pen approach to your bag is to purchase a suitcase without zippers.
Monos sells a sleek travel carry-on bag with an integrated locking mechanism in a variety of soft, appealing colors. But they’ll run you $335 a piece. If you want a non-zipper design that’s been engineered distinctly with travelers in mind, you can check out MRPLUM’s offerings. Like the Monos, MRPLUM suitcases sport an embedded three number lock system at less than half the cost.
BroBible has reached out to Trickster Grandpa via TikTok direct message and the TSA via email for further comment.