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) O
ffice of Consumer Affairs & Dispute Resolution Service is also looking into the matter.