Goodbye, Lappy
Four months ago, I bought myself a souped up MacBook Pro. I had always been dismissive of Macs - the hermetically sealed hardware, the One True Mouse Button (”mash the keypad with your palm now”), the alleged dearth of good software. But the allure of the MacBook was too great, and finally I gave in.
I held video iChats with my family on the East Coast, barcode-scanned my books into Delicious Library, bought music and movies. When I wanted to run shell commands or build something from source, I could still crack open a terminal and geek out. It quickly became the only computer I used at home. My brother and I soon bought several Intel Macs for ourselves and family members - six in total so far (it’s conceivable that we’re putting some Apple employee’s kid through college). This is where the story was supposed to end. Great success, go team, I’m a convert, and so on.
Last week, the MacBook was lost/stolen during baggage inspection at Logan Airport in Boston. I foolishly checked it inside of a larger suitcase, padded with clothes, because I didn’t intend to use it on the flight. When I got home, it was gone, replaced with a handy notice of baggage inspection. The Logan TSA representative assured me that each inspection was videotaped, that they would investigate, and that I could call back next week to hear the preliminary findings. But I’m not very optimistic. The laptop case was completely untagged. If there are any snags with the videotaping, it will be difficult to prove that I ever packed a laptop. Which, when you think about it, is kind of a silly thing for me to have to prove. Even if there’s evidence of negligence, they probably won’t be able to recover the laptop itself, and a monetary settlement could be six months out. The most frustrating part is that I have to take their word; the “investigation” is completely out of my hands.
It has been correctly pointed out that baggage handlers can get a bit rough in the course of their job. They hate baggage. If valuables aren’t stolen outright, they may very well be damaged by the time you retrieve them at your destination. The obvious lesson: bring whatever you can in a carry-on unless you have a good reason not to. Anything you check can be searched (and seized) by any of several unmotivated, poorly paid government employees with loose morals.
Suddenly, I have an opinion about whether to privatize airport security.
Update: Next time, I’ll consider using LoJack for Macs.
Wow, that is a horrible turn of events. I hope you get completely reimbursed. I learned my lesson about checking baggage when I went on vacation to Italy and suffered for 4 days in Rome without clothes, glasses or toothpaste because KLM sent my stuff to the wrong airport. The worst part was that they kept promising that the baggage would be delivered tomorrow everytime I called. I probably spent 10% of those 4 days on the phone.
Did you have any valuable data on that laptop?
Yeah, that must have been unpleasant - especially not having your glasses. Even with creative packing, it doesn’t seem like you can avoid checking baggage altogether if you’re going to be traveling for a week or more.
Fortunately, other than maybe a few iTunes purchases, I think I can recover all the data I had stored on the laptop.
The LoJack thing is incredibly cool. I love Plan B
Bah. They weren’t much better back when it was all private. In fact, they may have been worse. I’m not too sure that pay is the issue.
Before the TSA, airport security staff were faulted for being undertrained. That hasn’t changed much. But creating a government agency to handle all screening might not have been the best way to fix that.
With regular reviews and perhaps penalties imposed on airlines that show lapses, I think private security can do much better. They’re more likely to care about your baggage. If your belongings go missing or are damaged, it’s bad for business, and you’ll just choose a different airline or the airline will choose a different contractor to do the screening next time around - assuming they’re sufficiently incentivized. No such luck with the TSA.