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My guess is that the person who took it was acting with an accomplice, possible the one who caused the distraction. They would make an exchange in a place where there are no cameras. The person who took it would have a story ready in case she was challenged. As for the TSA - they want to pretend that the incident never happened, because it would make them them look bad.
At the destination curiosity took over and I had to ask a security guard if it was possible to get it back when I returned, something he confirmed. They handed valuables like that over to lost and found.
This naturally made my day a little better and I didn't think much about it until a few days later when my return flight was. I went to the lost and found, no dice. I asked some security personell on site, and they confirmed the practice, all valuables, including knives, was sent to lost and found, where they logged it and kept it for a month or so.
So the guy who was going to protect us all from terrorist attacks had just stolen it. Reassuring!
> Luckily, I am meticulous about encryption and about backing up, so I don’t think I lost any data nor gave anyone else access. What is the OP's setup (and what are some alternatives), that he is so sure this was the case?
FileVault full disk encryption is also pretty solid. I won't speak to its efficacy against the most notorious adversaries (e.g. Governments) but it will reliably thwart any adversary most people would ever actually care about.
Apple's firmware passwords seem to work well, though I have no idea how robust they are. It's just a damn shame it's nowhere as easy to set up as the iPhone equivalent. (Just turn on Find My iPhone and that hardware is activation-locked to your iCloud account.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Can you think of a way of changing the process that would result in a net benefit for everyone? That one's easy: Getting rid of the TSA alltogether.
No screening at all? That'd certainly be interesting.
[0] http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/investigation-breaches-u...
Assuming this story is on the up-and-up and isn't some kind of prank, the writer should call the police and report a theft. Secondly, call a lawyer and pursue a quest to recover property cost and associated damages--business losses, legal fees, time lost, etc. Also, he should report the loss to his insurance company.
How this works in India. When you put your laptop in a bin, the security person puts one of two identical tags (pieces of plastic with identical numbers on them) into the bin, on top of your computer and gives you the other one. When you finish your patdown/metal detector etc screening and want to take your computer back, you give the security person at the other end of the line your tag, she looks around for the bin…
Yes, I have found this to be very practical, but unfortunately they don't do this at all airports.
> I emerged from the scanner without any problems, collected my 2 bags and incidentals, and proceeded into Terminal 5. After awhile, I looked into my backpack and realized that I didn’t have my computer. My heart skipped a beat! I turned around and rushed to the security area.
I'm surprised that everyone is focusing on the TSA for giving his computer away (awful), but to me, the even more objectionable thing is that THE WOMAN TOOK A RANDOM COMPUTER and just left with it. Any reasonable person would say "that is not mine", or am I being too naive? And, since she didn't do that, there was clearly malice involved, so the police were also clearly in the wrong, saying that it was an accident an…
Alternative title: Guy forgets laptop at security checkout and blames TSA for his stupidity. > I emerged from the scanner without any problems, collected my 2 bags and incidentals, and proceeded into Terminal 5. After awhile, I looked into my backpack and realized that I didn’t have my computer. My heart skipped a beat! I turned around and rushed to the security area.
> After a few minutes, he found me coming through the security line, and sure enough, my computer was not with my bags when I retrieved my belongings. Moving further back in time, we watched as a TSA agent pulled my computer off of the belt as soon as it came out of the machine—there is an area where agents can remove things from the belt before passengers have access to belongings. He moved my computer to a holding area immediately behind the x-ray machine. And then, we watched as the computer was inspected, after which it was handed back… to a random woman. The woman took my computer and left the security area.