This is the one thing you should never put in a TSA bin — it’s the top item stolen at security, expert warns

If you’ve ever dropped your phone into a TSA bin and sent it down the conveyor belt — as most air travelers have done — you might want to rethink that casual habit.

In a now-viral TikTok, travel expert Tiffany (@travel.by.the.books) shares a critical piece of advice she says she learned the hard way: never place your phone directly into a TSA bin. Instead, she always keeps hers zipped securely inside her bag.

“The thing I’m absolutely never doing when I’m going through TSA — I am not putting my phone directly into one of the containers,” she says in the video, which has now racked up hundreds of thousands of views. “It’s always going in a zipped pocket in my bag.”

Tiffany recalls being corrected by a TSA officer who caught her placing her phone loose in a bin. “The TSA agent looked at me and was like, ‘You don’t like your phone?’” she recounts. “I said, ‘Yes?’ And he said, ‘This is the fastest way to get it stolen.’”

According to Tiffany, the agent told her that phones are the number one item stolen at airport security. The issue, she explains, is timing: when lines back up or bins pile up, travelers often aren’t paying close attention to their belongings. That moment of distraction is all it takes.

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Viewers were quick to sound off in the comments — many in disbelief. “Wait WHAT! I always do this. Never again,” one person wrote. Another added, “This happened to me. Lost my phone before a 10-hour flight — worst feeling ever.”

Others chimed in with their own hacks: some tuck their phones into shoes, while others swear by interior zipper pouches or belt bags they keep on until the last second.

Tiffany’s closing advice is simple but effective: “Always make sure your valuables are zipped up [inside] your bag when they go through the scanners.”

It’s a small change that could save you hundreds of dollars — and a whole lot of airport stress.

Read more: TSA warns travelers that this “will not be tolerated” at airports this summer