Unattended luggage

We saw this briefcase, which look like the kind that pilots use to carry documents, just sitting around in the airport near one of the luggage carousels. There was nobody around it, and it indeed went unclaimed for the half an hour or so we were there. Meanwhile dozens of people, including airport personnel, walked by it. Everybody ignored it, nobody reported it. Why not?
Well, in our case because we did not think for a minute that the briefcase would contain a bomb, but feared that if we reported it, the airport security people would over-react, treat it as a national emergency and shut down the airport. Not really what we are looking for after a long flight at 10 PM at night.
As far as airport security goes (and the same can be said about national security) this is a classic “the boy that cried wolf” problem. Airport security is based on paranoia, but people who are not mentally ill can only be paranoid for so long. After a while all the false alarms add up into a general disbelief on actual danger – or at least a disbelief that something can be done to prevent that danger. Anyone who has half a brain knows that we are not appreciatively safer by taking off our shoes, putting our liquids in 3-oz containers and not taking clippers as we go through security. Assuming that terrorists are not stupid – and the fact that we assume they are speaks volumes about our views of foreigners -, they can figure out a way to make it through the well known airport security masures, if they chose to cause another air disaster. The measures that exists do nothing but inconvenience regular travelers. And we don’t want to be inconvenienced any more. Thus the lack of interest in reporting unaccompanied luggage.
For us, not reporting it was clearly the right decision. We felt sorry for the pilot that lost his briefcase, but knew that at that point he wouldn’t get it back anyway. In Paris, years ago, we saw a piece of unaccompanied luggage blown up. At least they didn’t close the airport to do it.