5 ms·

I don't get why this was deemed an accident. If you have me a random laptop, I'll ask you what the hell you're doing. I won't take it, walk away and then board

I don't get why this was deemed an accident. If you have me a random laptop, I'll ask you what the hell you're doing. I won't take it, walk away and then board another flight. That isn't an accident, that's theft. Unless of course they've got a spare Macbook that actually did belong to the woman, which she left thinking she was taking her own Macbook, but there's nothing indicating that this is the case. So you've got two very clear issues. One is a passenger who stole $3k on broad daylight, who is on footage and can easily be traced to a particular flight, which can easily be traced to a passenger list, which can easily trace back to her. The other is that you've got a custodial relationship for a few minutes. You give objects away to be inspected, at which point the TSA becomes a temporary custodian. They ought to return it. I can imagine that the TSA restricts their liability to e.g. $5k per item, and that its liabilities are covered if and when it has a proper safe-keeping procedure in place that's followed, such they're not held accountable for 'acts of god' (which is a legal concept). This would provide sufficient incentives to create very simple procedures that'd prevent 99% of such issues, like described earlier in this thread in India. You have a box with two tags, you get one, the employee at the end gets one, you put stuff in box, you give tag, you take stuff from box, that's it. But the notion that they're taking your stuff without any liability, responsibility, insurance, procedures or just in general, recourse, is ridiculous.

cognivore 10y ago
>> 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."
- MOARDONGZPLZ 10y ago
  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 manner you describe.
  - btreesOfSpring 10y ago
    not the same but congruent but there was the baggage theft ring[0] at JFK that focused on easily resalable electronics (and other goods). [0] http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/baggage-theft-ring-busted-jfk-airport-article-1.2031818 http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/baggage-theft-...
  - tbrake 10y ago
    "Fuck this other person because I don't want to fill out a form." I kind of feel laziness of that nature is its own kind of maliciousness.
  - avn2109 10y ago
    >> "I would really, really doubt this." It has happened plenty of times: http://www.wafb.com/story/1962125/arrests-made-in-tsa-baggage-theft-ring http://www.wafb.com/story/1962125/arrests-made-in-tsa-baggag... http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/abc-news-tracks-missing-ipad-florida-home-tsa/story?id=17331937 http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/abc-news-tracks-missing-ipad-f... http://www.wired.com/2012/12/tsa-ipads/ http://www.wired.com/2012/12/tsa-ipads/ And many, many more.
  - gaur 10y ago
    > I would really, really doubt this. I kind of doubt it too, but I wonder if accusing them personally of theft would light a fire under their butts to actually do something about it.
  - matt-attack 10y ago
    > I would really, really doubt this. Just curious, do you say that with knowledge of the fact that is on record happening multiple times? Or are you just unaware?
    - MOARDONGZPLZ 10y ago
      Yes, but I also know government workers. For every recorded instance of some theft ring, there are undoubtedly thousands of unrecorded instances of a TSA agents (or, really, any non-SES government worker) downplaying things or subtle manipulating situations to get out of paperwork.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
projectramo 10y ago
I just think the TSA people don't want to be yelled at by their superior officers for the mistake they made. Can you imagine the number of times something like this happens? They are hoping you'll just go away or that it'll never get traced to them or the woman will return the mac.

cognivore 10y ago

>> 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."

MOARDONGZPLZ 10y ago
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 manner you describe.
- btreesOfSpring 10y ago
  not the same but congruent but there was the baggage theft ring[0] at JFK that focused on easily resalable electronics (and other goods). [0] http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/baggage-theft-ring-busted-jfk-airport-article-1.2031818 http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/baggage-theft-...
- tbrake 10y ago
  "Fuck this other person because I don't want to fill out a form." I kind of feel laziness of that nature is its own kind of maliciousness.
- avn2109 10y ago
  >> "I would really, really doubt this." It has happened plenty of times: http://www.wafb.com/story/1962125/arrests-made-in-tsa-baggage-theft-ring http://www.wafb.com/story/1962125/arrests-made-in-tsa-baggag... http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/abc-news-tracks-missing-ipad-florida-home-tsa/story?id=17331937 http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/abc-news-tracks-missing-ipad-f... http://www.wired.com/2012/12/tsa-ipads/ http://www.wired.com/2012/12/tsa-ipads/ And many, many more.
- gaur 10y ago
  > I would really, really doubt this. I kind of doubt it too, but I wonder if accusing them personally of theft would light a fire under their butts to actually do something about it.
- matt-attack 10y ago
  > I would really, really doubt this. Just curious, do you say that with knowledge of the fact that is on record happening multiple times? Or are you just unaware?
  - MOARDONGZPLZ 10y ago
    Yes, but I also know government workers. For every recorded instance of some theft ring, there are undoubtedly thousands of unrecorded instances of a TSA agents (or, really, any non-SES government worker) downplaying things or subtle manipulating situations to get out of paperwork.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

projectramo 10y ago

I just think the TSA people don't want to be yelled at by their superior officers for the mistake they made. Can you imagine the number of times something like this happens? They are hoping you'll just go away or that it'll never get traced to them or the woman will return the mac.