us2

From USA Today:

Ex-airline worker charged with laptop thefts: A series of alleged thefts from passengers' checked luggage at New York airports was big news a few months ago. Now, the issue has come up again. This time it's in North Carolina, where police charged a former US Airways worker for allegedly stealing laptops from fliers' checked luggage at Greensboro's Piedmont Triad International Airport. The charges are in connection with the disappearance of as many as 20 laptop computers from a baggage sorting area behind the US Airways check-in desk. The man, Ray Brown, worked as a part-time employee in US Airways' fleet service department, where he handled checked baggage, US Airways spokeswoman Amy Kudwa tells The Associated Press. Brown is no longer employed by the airline, Kudwa says. Posted 7:50 a.m.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/today/sky.htm

haveric

who checks a laptop?

RICflyer

I agree who in their right mind would check a laptop

EnvoyBoy

No kidding!

On a more serious and less judgemental note, I'd love to hear from those who do so and why.

longing4piedmont

well umm. umm. umm I guess mine being four years old wasn't worth anything.

kdinino

better yet--who would steal laptops? hmm--apparantly a US employee...lol

deelmakur

With TSA crawling in everybody's bags downstairs, and supposed heightened surveillance (cameras, etc.), how is a creep like this able to operate? Since he appears to be (a) stupid, (b) dishonest, (c) money motivated, and (d), part time, he would seem just the type to be recruited by bad guys for access to planes. Next time you're standing in your stocking feet on a fllthy airport floor, just take comfort in knowing that the people you can't see, doing their thing, have also been scrutinized...huh?

jerseyfinn

Another way to look at things is that the guy is a thief and he got nailed for theft. In other words, someone is indeed doing their job behind the scenes and now there's one less thief working for US. I also don't see employee theft as a unique problem for any airline. It's problem in lots of businesses.

It is however mind-boggling that folks actually check a laptop. In a sense, this is the equivilant of leaving your front door open when you go to work and wondering why all of the living room furniture is gone when you return home.

Barry

MSP2000

If an airport employee can sneak out of a "secure area" with an unauthorized laptop, that tells me that the TSA is not doing their job checking the airport employees.

FWAAA

I would assume that most laptops in checked luggage got there as gate-checked bags where the owner was told, generally in no-uncertain-terms by the gate agents and/or flight attendants, that there was no more room in the overheads or under the seats and that their carryon was going to be checked. Happens every day on crowded flights. Moral: Board early.

jerseyfinn

If an airport employee can sneak out of a "secure area" with an unauthorized laptop, that tells me that the TSA is not doing their job checking the airport employees

If one has ever seen the baggage handling areas in an airport, they're expansive areas which like a warehouse, tempts thiefs. I don't see it wholly as a TSA issue ( though the terror aspect of baggage is indeed worrisome ). It is a security or theft prevention issue along with human nature.

In this case, the guy gets caught because like a Lay's potato chip, he could not stop at one laptop -- it seemed too easy for him. It's all a roll of the dice to anticipate where and when someone will be tempted to steal. No one is at fault unless you want to blame human nature itself.

Barry
(edited to correct spelling )

jerseyfinn

(deleted because of double post )