Portable Tethered Carrier and Method

A portable carrier system for small articles and planar items, such as travel documents, carried by a person, comprising:

• a flexible lightweight fabric carrier case generally planar in form with a thin thickness having an interior defined therein adapted to receive and enclose items to be carried by a person, including generally planar documents, said carrier case being foldable upon itself for storage and having an access opening to said interior along a side edge of said carrier and a closure device for completely closing said access opening,
• an automatically retractable tether mechanism separate from said carrier case,
• an anchor device in the form of a clasp having a releasable clasp closure, said anchor device being releasably engageable with an exterior part of an article to which said clasp can be attached, and
• connections between said carrier case, tether mechanism and anchor device uniting them together, one of said connections being between said carrier case and said tether mechanism and being located on said carrier case and not part of said closure device, and the other of said connections being between said tether mechanism and said anchor device, whereby, with said clasp engaged with said article, said carrier case is suspendable on said article by said tether and can be pulled away from a first position closely adjacent to said article by extension of said tether to a second and more remote position relative to said article for easier access to said carrier case interior by a person, and then automatically retracted from said second position to said first position.