“You Ugly” A Very Strange Exchange With Airport Security
Jennifer Billock August 16, 2019
A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) arm patch and shield is seen at Los Angeles International Airport, California February 20, 2014. U.S. authorities issued a warning on Wednesday to airlines flying to the United States to watch out for militants who may have hidden bombs in their shoes, U.S. government sources said. iREUTERS/Kevork Djansezian (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS SOCIETY TRANSPORT) - RTX197YF
A traveler that recently headed through the airport in Rochester ended up walking through a relatively nasty experience; a contract worker conducting security checks at the airport was keeping herself occupied by passing notes out to passengers, and the traveler received something that was pretty mean.
Traveling by plane is a stressful enough experience without other people there to make it worse. Unfortunately for Neal Strassner, a traveler heading through the Greater Rochester International Airport, the airplane stress started well before he even got to the gate.
Strassner was going through the security line when an employee waved him through the metal detector and handed him a folded up note. As he walked away, the employee shouted after to him to ask if he was going to read it. He did, and it was a nasty note that simply said, “You ugly!!!” When he read it, the worker burst into laughter. She could be seen in security footage getting ready to hand a note to another passenger.
As it turned out, the employee was a contractor for the TSA, employed through Virginia-based VMD Corp. Strassner got the security footage of the incident through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and complained about the incident. VMD Corp. told Strassner that the employee has been let go.
“I’m really curious what the other notes said,” Strasser wrote to News 8. “I travel a lot and the airport normally is spectacular. This was a totally weird event that they [VMD Corp.] seemed to handle properly. I travel a lot and just want to make sure they get some credit to their organization and don’t let one lady trash their whole reputation.”
TSA, who brought the contractor in released a statement to News 8 as well: “TSA holds contractors to the highest ethical standards and has zero tolerance for this type of behavior. This instance, which involved a contract employee, was investigated immediately upon receiving the complaint by the traveler. The employee has since been terminated by the contractor.”
[Featured Image: TSA]
How old was that employee? 8? Sounds like child labor to me ....
I might be ugly but I'm not unemployed. Haha !
Your article headline and photograph is very misleading. TSA had nothing to do with this lady who gave the passenger the note except to make sure she was fired when they found out. She didn't even have the same uniform.
So that's it? You inflict emotional distress on others and only lose your job that you really care less about since you were doing this in the first place? There isn't enough justice here imo. That lady is lucky that Neal had a flight to catch. She would have lost more than her job if that note went to the right person.