Laptop Theft at Southwest Airlines
Laptop stolen from Southwest Airlines
Who is the best person to take care of your laptop? Well, you of course!
Here is a bizarre case of laptop theft where the owner had to track the thief who stole her laptop and take credit for it!
Ambre Boroughs tracks her laptop.
When Ambre got off from her Southwest airlines flight in Charleston, South Carolina, she had no clue that the plan she had made for the day was about to change. When she approached the conveyor belt to get her laptop bag, she was in for a shock. The laptop bag was empty! Her brand new HP9000 laptop was missing! Most airlines recommend laptop bags to be carried on i.e. used as a carry-on item and not a check-in one. Apparently Ambre did not know that and she checked in her laptop bag. A big mistake!
As soon as she found out about the theft, she approached the Southwest representative on duty but in vain. The representative put her in a fix by asking why she had checked her computer in the first place when it was supposed to be a carry-on item. In short, Southwest airlines was not of much help.
What did Ambre do?
Ambre knew she could not depend on anyone to find her laptop and decided to put her ‘detective’ cap on. She followed her gut feeling and started browsing craigslist website the next morning. She entered the term ‘HP9000′ in the search box and bingo! She got a hit.
The moment Boroughs saw the picture on the site, she knew it was her laptop. What distingusihed her laptop from others was a small sticker with the logo of the “33’s. The logo matched the one tattooed on Boroughs’ wrist — it from her favorite South Carolina rock band. The next obvious thing that Ambre did was wrote to the seller. What followed were a series of phone calls and through these calls Ambre found out that the seller had a lot of laptops for sale. Ambre got in touch with the Chicago police and explained the details.
Chicago police wasted no time in visiting the seller’s place. They introduced themselves as Ambre Boroughs and pretended to be interested in buying the laptops. Three people were arrested at the seller’s home. Police recovered laptops and electronics from checked luggage of ticketed passengers on Southwest Airlines at Midway.
What did Southwest airlines have to say about it?
According to a Southwest spokesperson the airline admits a theft report only if a passenger files one. It further stated that its policies are in line with all major airlines and that it is at no obligation to warn passengers who are checking items that are not covered in its Contract of Carriage rules.
The above is a perfect example of lax of security at the airport terminals. The best thing is keep your valuables with yourself and not cut them in the check-in luggage.
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September 3rd, 2010
Aon Consulting Data Breach
In a major goof-up, Aon Consulting Inc. inadvertently revealed the Social Security numbers, dates of birth and genders of around 22,000 retirees from the state of Delaware, spokesman for the company said.
The data appeared on the consultant’s website between Aug 16 and Aug 20 in a vision benefits request for proposals that Aon had prepared for the state. The data did not contain any names and was removed as soon as it was discovered, according to the consultant’s Chicago-based parent, Aon Corp.
“The company is investigating the breach, but there have been no reports of any fraudulent activity,” an Aon spokesman said. He also added that potentially affected retirees were being notified of the breach and would receive free credit monitoring services for a year and access to a toll-free customer care center for additional assistance.
Delaware’s Office of Management & Budget and Delaware Department of Technology & Information, the Office of the Attorney General & the State Pension Office said in a combined statement that “we are overseeing the steps Aon is taking to support persons affected by this incident and prevent future incidents of this nature.”
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