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TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

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Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#111

Post by elkabong »

jvdh wrote: post #83
LukeB_UK wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Further down the article: > 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…

He completely forgot his laptop, moved away from the security check and only later figured out he was missing his laptop. With hundreds of people moving through those checkpoints, I do not blame the TSA agents for handing stuff out to completely random people.

He forgot his laptop, because it wasn't on the belt when he came out of the scanner. They gave it away before he had a chance to forget it. The couple of minutes it took him to realise that he didn't actually all of his stuff off the belt (even though, he did, since the laptop wasn't there any more) wouldn't have made a difference since somebody else has taken it beforehand anyway.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#112

Post by [deleted] »

jvdh wrote: post #83
LukeB_UK wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Further down the article: > 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…

He completely forgot his laptop, moved away from the security check and only later figured out he was missing his laptop. With hundreds of people moving through those checkpoints, I do not blame the TSA agents for handing stuff out to completely random people.

[deleted]

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#113

Post by Xylakant »

kriro wrote: post #64
Xylakant wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can put any message you want on your macbooks login/lock screen. Mine contains contact information just in case I loose it. Might actually pay off to put a sticker on it as well.

Two sided sword. If the person that took the laptop is actually a thief he/she conveniently knows you're currently not at home upon boot. Since this theft requires at least some criminal energy (I guess there's an outside shot of just being a grab and run) I wouldn't put it past the thief to immediately loot your home or have an accomplice do so.

That would require the finder/thief to be in a position to exploit that knowledge, something that is fairly unlikely for the general case. There are easier ways to figure out if I'm home (ring the door).

If you're concerned about that, just have a dedicated email address on the screen.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#114

Post by dmm »

skrause wrote: post #15
vidoc wrote: post #11

In a way, it's not the TSA's fault, it's ours for tolerating this insanity. Sometimes I almost wish someone smuggles a bomb through the TSA security line, and successfully storms a plane so we can finally have concrete evidence that those processes only provide annoyance , not security . The most successful terrorist of all times was Richard Reid, the dude who tried to embark in a plane with explosive material in his…

> Sometimes I almost wish someone smuggles a bomb through the TSA security line, and successfully storms a plane so we can finally have concrete evidence that those processes only provide annoyance, not security. That would just lead to the following reaction: "The TSA is not doing enough yet, we need to implement even more annoyances."

This is what happened with the shoe bomber.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#115

Post by KD3hj21ioje13 »

My laptop went missing when I sent it for servicing for several days and no one seemed to know where it was including FedEx and the company I sent it to. Turns out, it was the intelligence community and specifically Tailored Access Operations (TAO) hacking my laptop and preparing to ruin/sabotage my life. If you happen to mysteriously get your laptop back, make sure you look for potential evidence of tampering.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#116

Post by adekok »

notahacker wrote: post #103
james1071 wrote: post #43

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.

Seems a little unlikely that criminals are organising to buy plane tickets or obtain security clearances to steal things on security camera in a place crowded with security personnel when they could steal MacBooks just as easily by, say, wandering into a shared workspace.

If they happen to be flying somewhere, and there's a laptop free for the taking, why not?

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#117

Post by tobz »

bane wrote: post #98
Cyph0n wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you actually think there are gangs that take flights just to steal stuff during baggage check?

Why wouldn't there be? Flights can be cheap, and security requires you to show up hours in advance, but there's no limit to the number of times you can cycle through security lines looking for targets.

Hmmmmm?

Every time I've ever flown, my boarding pass is marked up by a TSA agent before I go through the metal detector/body scanner/X-ray belt area. I think it'd be incredibly suspicious if you left and then back through, multiple times even more so.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#118

Post by microtonal »

flexd wrote: post #71
gambiting wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually just $59/year. Seems totally worth it to me.

Except if you have a bit of data you'll spend a few years uploading it. Their servers are slow . Only getting like 5-20Mbit/s, mostly slower here in Europe.

I use Arq - I can choose where I upload it and I can have multiple destinations.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#119

Post by adekok »

barrkel wrote: post #17

Amazingly ignorant police. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_by_finding

Or just plain theft. She is on video taking a computer which isn't hers. That should be prima facia evidence for filing a police report stating "theft".

The question of motive is one for the courts. If they find her, and determine it was an accident, they can not charge her. But for the laptop owner, he has been unlawfully deprived of his property.

Even for the insurance claim alone, the police should have made a report. Otherwise, how is he going to file a claim? "Uh... I think my laptop was stolen. I saw the video, and talked to the police. But neither they nor the TSA would admit on record as to what they saw."

Laws are meant to protect people. But that requires the administrators of the laws to follow the laws, too.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#120

Post by Cyph0n »

blisterpeanuts wrote: post #65
Cyph0n wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you actually think there are gangs that take flights just to steal stuff during baggage check?

It's quite possible and likely that the two women were just opportunistic thieves, or at least the one who took the laptop was. Opportunitistic theft is not at all uncommon among our species.

If they can pull off an improvised act like that on such short notice, they are professional con artists.

So why are they stealing laptops in an airport? They wouldn't: high risk, low reward.

The way I see it, it was simply an error on the part of the TSA, as discussed countless times in other comments.

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