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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

#221

Post by avn2109 »

MOARDONGZPLZ wrote: post #146
cognivore wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I don't get why this was deemed an accident. Reading the story, there is this little voice saying in the back of my head, "They don't want to treat it as a crime because they know who has it and they're in cahoots."

I would really, really doubt this. My assumption is that they either: 1. They have statistics that they have to keep up, and having a ding like "a crime was committed on your watch" isn't a good thing, so they try to avoid it, or 2. Classifying it as a crime versus an accident comes with a load of paperwork and hassle for everybody involved that no one wants to do. I really don't think this was malicious in the manne…

>> "I would really, really doubt this."

It has happened plenty of times: http://www.wafb.com/story/1962125/arrests-made-in-tsa-baggag...

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/abc-news-tracks-missing-ipad-f...

http://www.wired.com/2012/12/tsa-ipads/

And many, many more.

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

#222

Post by soneil »

tobz wrote: post #117
bane wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I did this flying internationally. origin to OHare, OHare to philly, philly to London. Had hours to burn in Philly. Took a wander outside for a smoke, couldn't figure out how to get back inside (the layout seemed like it'd make plenty sense in a car, less so on foot, and a trainline blocked the obvious approach). So asked a nice policeman, who directed me.

Once we figured out that it wasn't actually difficult, we repeated once more before we left. Horrible habit I know, but on long flights/connections you spend near on a whole day "airside". It's pretty simple to just explain why you wanted to nip outside for some fresh* air.

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

#223

Post by soneil »

elkabong wrote: post #111
jvdh wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Especially if you're used to being able to leave your laptop in your bag - you fall back to routine very easily. I want to fault him for walking off and leaving it, but I can also imagine myself easily doing the same.

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

#224

Post by notahacker »

rev_null wrote: post #199
notahacker wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why buy a ticket when you can print a fake one? https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/11/forge_your_ow...

Good luck trying to exploit that 10 year old security hole and not finding yourself under interrogation by someone a bit more menacing than the TSA.

Or, alternatively, if stealing laptops is your thing, you could steal them from the sort of location where people hold the door open for you.

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

#225

Post by grkvlt »

scholia wrote: post #175
blowski wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you make it more effective?

You could remove the TSA and let airlines do their own security checks at the gate. Airlines really don't want their planes hi-jacked.

I don't think anyone would be happy with 'British Airways Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence Services, plc.' and friends running surveillance, SIGINT and other spy operations to gather threat intelligence. And, unfortunately, it seems like intelligence-led prevention is the only real way to stop terrorism, detection and attempts at interdiction close to the target are going to fail the same way the TSA fails, due to the vanishingly small number of actual terrorists.

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

#227

Post by grkvlt »

tobz wrote: post #117
bane wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you're a smoker, then not so much. In order to smoke at Heathrow, for instance, I have to go landside (sometimes through passport control) and back, with no problem, sometimes more than once if a flight is delayed for a long time.

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

#228

Post by FireBeyond »

gchadwick wrote: post #24

Whilst the TSA agents should be taking more care to ensure valuables are returned to the correct person, there are several agents working on a single line. The person who saw him place the computer into the x-ray would be different from the person handing items back so it's not all that surprising that didn't know who it belonged to and was just assuming people were being honest. Any frequent flyer will know return o…

I don't feel that he should share some of that blame.

There's the line about malice vs stupidity. But on the flip side there's an interesting aggregation of circumstances.

Woman makes disturbance, distracting passengers, and multiple TSA agents so they're all dealing with her, not working the line.

Man puts his MacBook Pro in X-ray. It comes out the other side and a TSA agent, not distracted by incident, hands it straight to another woman who it's later shown was with the woman making the disturbance before the checks, but is not paying attention to her now, and doesn't seem surprised to be handed a laptop that's not hers, and promptly wanders off without her 'partner'.

That seems more than a little coincidental.

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

#229

Post by grkvlt »

georgestephanis wrote: post #86
howlingfantods wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, MacBook Pros pretty much all look the same on the outside. She probabaly just thought it was hers, stuffed it in her bag, and went to catch her flight.

There's a reason the first thing I do with a new laptop is add about fifteen assorted stickers to it. Very helpful at conferences and such when it comes to keeping laptops distinct.

Exactly! Also: never clean the keyboard or wipe off any coffee or marmalade spills; that way the thief will probably decide they don't want it after all, hand it back and go looking for a shiny, well looked-after one...

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

#230

Post by vitd »

They did this to me at LAX once about 12-13 years ago. Oddly enough, the man they handed my computer to was Johnny Cochrane (the lawyer that got OJ out of a murder conviction). They were so starstruck (telling him "Here's your computer Mr. Cochrane!"). Thankfully, he said, "Oh, that's not mine," just as I walked up and I was able to get it unlike the OP.
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