Study says more than 10,000 laptops go missing at US airports each week

As we've seen, laptops have a tendency of getting stolen from even the most unsuspecting places, but a new study has now found one not entirely surprising place where your laptop is particularly unsafe: the airport. According to the Ponemon Institute, more than 10,000 laptops are reported lost at the 36 largest airports in the US each week and, of those, 65 percent are not reclaimed. They also reported a further 2,000 laptops lost at medium-sized airports, with 69 percent of those not reclaimed. According to the institute, folks also aren't very confident that they'll ever see their laptop again once it goes missing, with 77 percent of the people surveyed saying they had "no hope" of ever recovering a laptop lost at the airport, and 16 percent saying they wouldn't even do anything to attempt to recover it. Of course, there's no shortage of suggestions out there for preventing your laptop from getting lost or stolen, and Network World's Richard Stiennon has a couple of good ones at the link below.

[Via Network World]

[Ryan @ Jul 6th 2008 11:14AM]

Why can't they just check out security tapes? plus, these days you can't even go to the terminals without a ticket. I wonder where they get stolen?

[Flashpoint @ Jul 6th 2008 1:19PM]

#1 there are companies that offer "LOJACKS" for laptops that will trace a laptop as soon as it logs into an internet network and use GPS to help police catch the theif red handed.

Unfortunately you've gotta pay for the service and it ain't cheap.

THE SOLUTION: NEVER CHECK YOUR LAPTOP or any other expensive device. CARRY IT ON...DUH.

#2 This is why I have no faith in airport security. They shouldn't just be able to stop contraband from getting ON the plane, they should also have full control of what is getting off.

#3 Do they have incoming/outgoing security checks for AIRPORT WORKERS? If they don't then they SHOULD.

I know EL AL does.

[GatgetMan @ Jul 6th 2008 11:59PM]

I totally trust the heavyset woman who takes the bags, you know, the one with the sprayed on pants... so tight you can see the metal tongs on the zipper holding on for dear life...

How can you have no faith in this crack squad of savvy, motivated personnel?

[Jenny @ Jul 7th 2008 2:46AM]

Check your laptop in a obvious 'laptop bag' and it just circles around that terminal screaming 'take me'!

[OneLove @ Jul 7th 2008 10:25AM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7AWw7t5zj0

[Aaron @ Jul 6th 2008 11:15AM]

The question is: Where can we buy these unclaimed laptops for cheap!?

[Robert @ Jul 6th 2008 12:26PM]

In the UK they go to auction houses you can pick up entire suitcases for about £50

[Zaidyn @ Jul 6th 2008 2:24PM]

In the US it goes to the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama. It's like a discount clothing department store where you can also buy laptops and furry suits, if that makes sense.

[BatteryAcid @ Jul 6th 2008 8:34PM]

I'm guessing most are going to the family and friends of airport workers. My friends dad works at a garage and he always finds sweet electronics while cleaning out customers' cars. He then grabs them and gives them to my friend.

[marK @ Jul 6th 2008 9:37PM]

Your friend's dad is a fuck'n thief.

[kal326 @ Jul 7th 2008 12:22AM]

@BatteryAcid

Well that explains why my Zune that I reported left in a Hertz rental car never made its way to lost and found. Tell your "friend's dad" he is a world class douche bag the next time you see him.

[fmaxwell @ Jul 7th 2008 2:39AM]

@BatteryAcid:

If you know that your friend's dad is stealing stuff out of cars, then why the fuck aren't you turning him in to the police? That someone forgets to take something out of a car does not mean that they've "donated" the item to your friend's low-life dad to give as a "present."

Seriously, why the fuck haven't you turned that low-life scumball in?

[martin @ Jul 6th 2008 11:18AM]

pokemon instutute? is that what professor oak does nowadays

[Aguiluz @ Jul 6th 2008 11:39AM]

Huh?

(You must have seen a typo or you misread the article.)

[you @ Jul 6th 2008 11:55AM]

Ponemon Institute. Not to be confused with the well known and respected Pokemon Institute.

[bolezhinkov @ Jul 6th 2008 11:55AM]

no man, there is a word that looks like pokemon in the article. play on words.

[MMaster23 @ Jul 6th 2008 11:19AM]

how does that happen? you're never further away then 10 feet from your PC when it's going through x-ray...

only time I lose sight of it, is when it goes through.

btw had laugh the other day .. I emptied my pockets and had put my bags through the x-ray. then I wanted to go through the metal detector and found a labello stick in my left pocket still. I reached for it and held it clearly in my hand whilst holding my hands up going through the machine.

The guard chuckled and said "Believe it or not, but that has to go through x-ray" haha. Made my day .. grabbing a little 5" mini tray just for a stick. It even got stuck in the machine till a large bag came behind it.

[Lex Masberg @ Jul 6th 2008 11:29AM]

hey....
not only laptops go missing...
i am from germany and they stole two ipod out off my bag in NY !!!!!!!!!!!!
there have to be a really big organisation behind it !

[Chad @ Jul 6th 2008 11:33AM]

Sure you didn't leave them in the seat back pocket? I guess you can replace them with one big iPod now. Please, give us a 32gb iPhone already!

[Joe @ Jul 6th 2008 12:31PM]

There is, and it's called the TSA!

[evplasmaman @ Jul 6th 2008 3:05PM]

They have to pay for the extra airport security some how...

[Chad @ Jul 6th 2008 11:30AM]

I've seen people leave their kids behind... so I'm sure a few of these laptops were left behind rather than stolen. "Reported lost" is the key phrase here.

[everthecynic @ Jul 6th 2008 11:33AM]

How to avoid laptop loss: keep it with you.

The End.

[Aguiluz @ Jul 6th 2008 11:39AM]

So true.

[helloUser @ Jul 6th 2008 12:43PM]

Best comment, ever.

[ChillyWilly @ Jul 6th 2008 1:40PM]

Great advice, but at some point it does have to go by itself in it's own separate gray bin. The advice in the article of sandwiching it between both of your goods is very good advice.

[Nick @ Jul 8th 2008 2:07PM]

I guess I've been fortunate in that I actually remove all metal objects from my person and put them in my bag so that I get through the metal detector before my bags even finish being screened. Unless there are thieving midgets in those x-ray machines, I get to to my bag and my laptop before anyone else. Security screening isn't that hard if you're prepared.

[D-RocK @ Jul 6th 2008 11:43AM]

at my ticket/help desk in JFK airport in hartford connecticut

[Abuzar Baloach @ Jul 6th 2008 10:51PM]

JFK airport in HARTFORD?

You're an idiot.

[bob @ Jul 7th 2008 3:41AM]

Los Angeles International is in San Fransisco, I bet you didnt know that

[you @ Jul 6th 2008 11:46AM]

Every time that I have to take my laptop out of my bag for security, my heart rate goes up by like twenty beats a second.

[scikotc84 @ Jul 6th 2008 4:01PM]

You may want to see a doctor if your heart is beating 20 times in a second.

[jason @ Jul 6th 2008 9:15PM]

@scikotc84

you may want to learn some basic logic

his heart rate goes up by 20 BPM

so that is a difference of 20

so unless he had a heart rate of 0 before, i think he is fine :)

[Scikotc84 @ Jul 6th 2008 9:59PM]

Well he said 20 beats per second. Basic logic says there are 60 seconds in one minute. My elementary math tells me that's 1200 BPM. Now I'm not a cardiologist but I'm pretty sure that's about 1100 too many. :)

[Ebzy @ Jul 6th 2008 10:13PM]

@Jason

Only thing is he said per second not minute.

It helps if you read before trying to correct

[RC @ Jul 6th 2008 11:51AM]

Couldn't laptops have some kind of alarm that could be triggered by different means? Like exceeding a certain proximity to the owner, or length of time without a password login. Or even the ability to page the machine with a cellphone. You can use the phone to activate an audible alarm so you can find it, or even have it send GPS coordinates to your celphone?

[paul34 @ Jul 6th 2008 11:56AM]

Using any of that makes you a terrorist intent on blowing up millions of innocents, just like the two-year olds with water bottles. Murderers

[PCIV @ Jul 6th 2008 1:13PM]

Or just get iAlertU on your macbook. Then, log into the airport Wifi. There's your crook.

[Josh L @ Jul 6th 2008 3:33PM]

@paul:

If calling whiny, noisy 2-year-olds terrorists will keep them from running up and down the aisles and screaming for 5 hours straight, I say keep up the good work.

[Konstantin Vladychevski @ Jul 6th 2008 11:56AM]

Here one of the way of how its done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9SXHYCP-q0

Watching the whole The Real Hustlers videos is highly recommended.

K.

[you @ Jul 6th 2008 11:56AM]

You sure aren't doing a good job at masking your identity.

[paul34 @ Jul 6th 2008 11:57AM]

They are stolen either by security or baggage handlers. Simple.

[wilcoholic @ Jul 6th 2008 11:58AM]

What kind of laptop is the person in the picture holding? It looks like a sony vaio TZ but it isnt because the battery is too flat and big.

[ansdred @ Jul 7th 2008 10:18PM]

The laptop is a Sony Vaio SR-17.

[Guy @ Jul 6th 2008 11:58AM]

People tend not to care as much about their business laptop as they do their personal laptop. So I'd assume a great deal of those laptops lost were company laptops.

But 10,000 a Week!? That number threw me off.

[Joel @ Jul 7th 2008 10:15AM]

Some people (myself included) use business laptops for personal reasons. It would be a little unreasonable to carry a second laptopt for personal transactions and e-mails when you are on the road because of your job. I would feel different if I were rotating among a group of shared laptops, but after you use an assigned laptop for so long it becomes a bit more of a personal item.

[Hacker @ Jul 6th 2008 11:59AM]

The "unsuspecting places" link doesn't quite live up to its promise... :-(

[Joel @ Jul 6th 2008 12:01PM]

Once some one brought a Dell laptop to me telling me that they could not remember their password and asked me to reinstall windows and give it back to them. They told me I didn't need to back anything up.

I decided I would be nice and back up their files anyway. I took out the hard drive and when I went to the accounds folder something looked odd. None of these folders had a name that resembled the person that gave me the laptop. After doing more digging through the files I found out the laptop was the property of another company and assigned to a sales individual. He had a copy of the company directory on his desktop so I called him and shipped it back to him; he only lived 60 miles from my house. The person that gave me the laptop had a job as a flight attendent on an airline that I won't name.

As it turned out the owner of the laptop had placed it in his seat pocket during the flight and forgot to get it back out. The flight attendent took it, removed the stickers and business cards from it, ordered a new power supply, and then was trying to get me to complete the final step in making it his. After returning the laptop the flight attended tried to convince me that I owed him for the loss of this laptop that was never his property. I invited him to have a discussion with myself, the airline, and the company that owned the laptop at which point he respecfully withdrew his claim.

[iH8Engadget @ Jul 7th 2008 3:41AM]

I hate to say this (not really)... but your a fucking asshole. I wouldn't have bothered in having a 'discussion' with you. I would've just whooped your ass and taken out the cost of the laptop out on your skull.

(And I seriously don't care for those of you who low rank me)

[Joel @ Jul 7th 2008 9:56AM]

Hello iH8Engadget.

I would expect most to have that thought pattern and response from learning I had returned the stolen laptop to its owners along with criticism from anyone aware of the situation. Precautions were taken to avoid harassment and harm. I had already spoken to employees of the airline and found taking the laptop was sufficient means for loosing his job. The company that owned the laptop being all to happy to get their data back was also prepared to file a legal complaint had I disclosed his name to them. He was made aware of this when I invited him to have the discussion which made the mutually beneficial for the both of us for him to do nothing more.