On another note, I had a similar thing (but even more blatant) in Istanbul airport some years ago.

It was just before smartphones and so the phone I had was a crappy little burner phone I used for travel. I had been in Istanbul for work and so was coming back through the airport with a couple of my clients.

We got to security and did the whole putting possessions into the tray etc. I put my laptop, change and phone into the tray and walked through the security check. As I was waiting for my stuff to come out of the X-ray machine, I turned to one of my clients and asked if he fancied a drink at one of the bars. When I turned back around, the tray with my stuff was there minus my phone!

I asked the security guy where it was and his grasp of English seemed to slip in that moment. It was a crappy phone, however I had arranged a cab to pick me up when I landed and I needed the phone to call and confirm where in the airport I would be.

So I asked again and another security guard said there was no phone to begin with! I was like WTF??? I put it right there less than 30 seconds ago.

Then a person who looked like the head of security came over, patted his gun and told me to calm down, which I did, instantly!

As I walked away dejected, one of them called me back, I turned round and the dude was holding my phone in the air.

"My fren! Dis your phone?"

Hmm, my thoughts were he looked at it, saw it was crap and decided to give it back. Un-frickin-believable!

Wish we could somehow have trackers on all of our valuables!

Cg