The sign at Bangkok airport had Oliwia Krol’s name on it.
There was no suitcase.
Krol, 24, from Abbey Wood in south-east London, was flying from Koh Samui to Bangkok on 6 May as part of a trip around Thailand.
Staff led her to an office. She prepared for the worst.
“I was panicking as I didn’t understand what was happening and was thinking I was in a lot of trouble for something,” she told Creatorzine.
Years of watching Border Force had not helped.
“In my head, I had different scenarios playing out, scaring me after watching the border force growing up.”
A lighter, or something else
Inside the office, staff said her bag had been flagged for a prohibited item.
She would need to sign documents giving permission for a search.
The item, they told her, could either be a cigarette lighter or “possibly an intimate item”.
Krol knew straight away it was not a lighter.
“I knew straight away it wasn’t a lighter because I didn’t have one in there, so that made things a little awkward.”
It was a vibrator. She had thought, briefly, about putting it in her checked luggage before flying. Then she had decided that was overthinking it.
“I’ll be honest, I did have a slight thought before flying that maybe I should put the item in checked luggage just in case. But I genuinely didn’t think it would cause any issue.”
It caused an issue.
A day without a suitcase
She signed the documents. The bag was searched. The vibrator was found.
The suitcase did not make the flight, and Krol spent the next 24 hours in Bangkok without her belongings before an email told her she could come back to the airport to collect it.
Her friends, predictably, have not let it go.
“My friends found the whole thing hilarious afterwards and haven’t let me forget it since.
Looking back now, it’s more funny than anything, just a very unexpected travel experience.”
Why it matters
Sex tech is one of the loudest categories in the creator economy right now.
There are influencer-fronted brands, viral TikTok reviews, and sponsorship deals that would have been unthinkable five years ago.
Creators in the space fly constantly for shoots, launches and conferences, and many of them are packing the products they promote.
The cultural conversation has moved on. Airport scanners have not.
Most airlines allow vibrators in carry-on or checked luggage. The catch is the battery.
Anything with a lithium-ion cell triggers extra scrutiny, and a device that looks ambiguous on a scanner will get pulled regardless of what it actually is.
What other travellers should know
Take the batteries out. Put it in your checked luggage if it makes you feel better.
Accept that someone at the other end might still want a look anyway.
Krol is back in the UK now. The suitcase, eventually, made it home too.
