A new study has found that the airport is one of the most common places for laptop theft — over 10,000 are stolen every week! It makes me even more Mama-bear protective than I already am over my precious computer. Can I please get this laptop bag with a lock?
Even though it's one of my biggest geeky fears, I've never been a victim of laptop theft, or cell phone, iPod, or portable game system (great big knock on wood). I also know I'm incredibly lucky, because many of my coworkers and friends have had laptops, cell phones, or other gadgets stolen, and I sympathize like no other. So what about you? Ever had your gadgets stolen?
Source
Paul & Joe
DKNY
Early 20
no, never have. I've thrown away my ipod shuffle.. haha. Was one of those throw it in my shopping bag in the car then completely forget its there when you throw the bag away. Felt PRETTY dumb.
1Oh, this is just what I needed to read...next Thursday I'm flying to Orlando and I'm taking my laptop (I'll be there for 12 days!). Now I'm scared someone might steal it. Does anyone have any tips to make sure no one steals your gadgets in the security line??
2My gadget wasn't stolen at the airport. I'm a high school teacher, and a student got into my desk and took my Palm TX. The kid bragged about it to other students, but we were never able to get it back. Super frustrating, especially since he was in my class for several more months and I had to treat him normally, knowing that he had stolen my property.
3someone stole my 30gb MP3 player out of my car, and i was so frustrated
4it had all my family photos on it
I haven't had any gadget stolen but if it happened and I found who did it, they'd get hurt!
5Someone stole my cell phone once, but it was big and old and ugly anyway. Oh well. I hate traveling with my laptop, though, because of the airport x-ray queue. I do my best to not let my computer out of my sight, but someone ahead of me seems to always have keys or a watch on his person, which holds up the line and leaves my laptop sitting on the belt.
6YES! Mine was stolen out of my bag at the airport. Someone in the St. Paul/Minneapolis airport's Transport Security Admininstration (those federally-employed luggage handlers/screeners) stole my new Macbook (lost sooo many pictures
) and a very beautiful,
expensive, and sentimental ring. It was SO STUPID to have that stuff in my suitcase, I realize, but I thought it would be OK because only TSA was to handle it. But no, it was an inside job.
They exploited the fact that since 9/11 we can't have locks on our luggage. I was sure it's a nice little scheme they have going there, and now after this post I know it is. . .
At the time I was absolutely devastated, sickened, and angry, and it's been several years but I'm still FURIOUS when I think about it. Now, I never put anything remotely valuable in checked luggage, even if it means having to haul around a much heavier carryon bag.
7fredonica — the article I linked to actually has some tips for avoiding laptop theft at the airport, esp in terms of security-line technique, and as you can see from The City Girl, never, ever, check your laptop inside your suitcase — always carry on.
Aside from that, never let it out of your sight while you're waiting for your plane to board. I know that sounds super obvious, but I am always surprised when I see people leaving their laptops charging at an outlet with them not so close by.
8A few weeks ago, my close friends and I were over a friend's house. Her brother's friend was also in the house, but we didn't think much of it and left all of our purses (not our cells) in her bedroom, thinking that everything was going to be fine. The next day, I found that my precious Video Ipod was stolen. It was my baby. All of my other friends were robbed two, loosing more than just an ipod. Thankfully, my friend's brother got most of our things back! (though not my friend's ipod) Since then, I never bought my purse over her house again!
9Yeah, I had a gadget stolen, but not at the airport -- it was stolen FROM MY OWN LIVING ROOM by a "friend" of my roommate's. We were gone, and he had a friend over who just took off with our GameCube (the coolest thing back then, LOL). The worst part was that my roommate knew his friend had stolen it, and was completely unwilling to help us get it back.
10I went to a church camp quite a few years ago and had my cd player stolen. I wasn't too upset because it'd stopped working on me earlier that day. I thought it was kind of funny actually.
11I had my discman stolen several years ago. I replaced it with my first ever iPod.
12Just my iPod speakers, a pair of folding iSound ones.
13I found out it was my idiot brat of an 11 y/o cousin who took them.
He's such a loser...
I haven't gotten any of my gadgets stole (*knock on wood*), but my brother had his BlackBerry Pearl stolen at his job about a month ago. Of course, none of his co-workers admitted they had stolen it, though my brother had his suspicions. Unfortunately, there was no way for him to prove it. He had to settle with a cheaper phone, a Nokia 5310 -- a good phone, but nothing like his stolen one.
I am almost paranoid every time I take my MacBook with me. Not only do I love the laptop, but I also have very important data in it and having it stolen would be horrible. So I never leave it alone, not even to grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks or go to the bathroom. Though the Starbucks I always go to is always full, I still don't feel at ease leaving my computer and BB unattended. Just call me practical.
14I personally have not, but I have my gadgets attached to me at all times when I'm not at home, and I'm very particular about the people I let into my home.
15i fly very frequently.. and i can only recall ONE flight in the past year where i didnt FIND someone else's forgotten laptop in the security bins... EVERY time!!! people dont pick them up after taking them out of their bags.. and no one ever stops me from picking up the forgotten lappy and chasing down their owner (if theyre already out of eyesight i hand them to the TSA inspector for safekeeping... but last time the guy showed me the bin behind the scanner for forgotten laptops... FULL to the brim.)
so PLEASE, dont forget your laptop. im sure most of those statistically "stolen" laptops were forgotten.. or maybe people flying through Logan are absentminded
16but the best defense for airports is keeping your wits about you. dont get distracted while in line, try to find one with few people, and stay with your belongings.. even if the person before you has already gone through, if your stuff is still on the belt, you can pause for a second and wait for them to go in.. TSA guys deal with way worse. make sure you have emptied all your pockets and stuff so that you dont get held up, and whlie youre passing through the detector keep your eyes on the belt for your lappy coming out.
and dont check it... cuz airlines wont give you anything if its stolen out of your checked luggage or if someones heavy bag crushes it.
17no, i haven't...
can someone help me:
i am going out of town by plane next month and am bringing my laptop and my wii...i'll carryon my laptop, but what about my wii??? will they think it is a bomb if i have it in my carryon luggage? what should i do? i'd hate to have it stolen by airport security! when i flew with it throughout asia and to new zealand i checked it and it wasn't a problem, but who knows?! any ideas?
18I haven't. I work at a company who issues Blackberrys and replaces all of them when they get lost. I wish I had a company issued Blackberry; then I really wouldn't care [as much]. But when it's personal, man! I can imagine unleashing a whole lotta fury.
Time to put something like Computrace on your computer folks...
19Way way back in the pre-iPod era I had my most beloved Discman stolen.
20Nope never have. I keep a good eye on all my stuff (especially at airports, or shows where I'm in close contact with other people) to make sure I don't drop or have anything stolen.
I've been going in an out of multiple airports the past month (more to come) and haven't had a problem yet. Just keep an eye on it as it goes through the metal detector...if it gets to the other end BEFORE you, just keep an eye on the people in the area of the tray your computer is in.
21im pretty sure that no one will mistake the Wii for a bomb.. especially if they run it through the xray.. i think you'll be fine
22worst fear is someone walking off with my laptop because that would be like walking off with my life!
23Similar to The City Girl, my sister had a brand spankin new Blackberry stolen out of her suitcase! So she had to go back to her old Moto RAZR V3. It's the total opposite of our dad and a friend of ours--they've been lucky enough to *find* gadgets! Our dad found a Samsung BlackJack just lying on the ground, and our friend found a 60 GB iPod. Finders keepers, losers weepers! If you don't take care of your stuff, someone else will!
24Yes! Someone stole my iphone, a 160gb ipod, umm...many cameras, also. It's horrible! I still get angry when I think about it!
25I got my cellphone stolen exactly one month after I bought it for $600+ and have researched on it extensively. It was so disheartening that I didn't bother to buy a new one after that. I just used my old one instead even if it started to conk out a bit. It took me a long time to recover.
26Oh but I'm happy now, haha! I'm over it. But it made me more cautious and not as gaga over gadgets like before. I think I found balance after that incident, which is cool
27I've been lucky so far. I try my hardest to not check my bags and I never pack anything valuable in a checked bag. I saw this article the other week and it sickened me.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24187702/
Check out the link for how to open a suitcase with a lock on it.
28I'm flying through several airports tomorrow on my way to Paris and I'm totally freaked out about this. I mean, in my carry-on I have my laptop, brand-new camera, iPod, and global phone that I rented (which if I lose I have to pay $200). So, very scared about losing any of this. Also, it doesn't help any that the laptop case doesn't close all the way!!
29Um, YES. I was young and very, very foolish though. I left my laptop on the backseat of the effing car. With my iPod plugged into it. With no backup. -__-
30I travel a lot so I always carry around all my gadgets, and so when I'm walking around the airport, I am worth a LOT. o__O Including Macbook, Kindle, iPod, cell phone... Not to mention CDs, DVDs and books which destroy my back.
Yes, I've had been stolen.
31I once forgot to lock my dorm room when I arrived (in a really stressed and awful mood) so I didn't notice the thief while I was sleeping. She/he (more on a "she" cause I live in an all-girls dorm and the office suspected a co-dormer) stole a Canon digicam, a Samsung and a Nokia phone. Fortunately, I locked my MacBook away in my closet. The funny part was she didn't notice my friend's IBM ThinkPad on my sofa. I guess she focused more on the "small" stuff so she could make a fast get-away, just in case I could catch her. x-(
I think she used my stuff to pay tuition fees cause it happened during the start of classes (early June) or for some financial reason.
no ive been lucky thus far
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