Last year in February while heading on a 7 day vacation to Florida from New York, my barely one year old 15 inch Macbook Pro was stolen at the security checkpoint. Since I had my 2 kids with me, I was a bit distracted when the bins containing our personal possessions went through the x-ray machine. When we started collecting our stuff, my laptop never came out of the machine. I immediately asked one of the officers operating the machine where it was. They pulled me aside and scanned the perimeter in case I just wasn't seeing it due to all the movement and commotion, but no, that wasn't the case. They then began reviewing the security footage and saw 2 men, who were directly behind us. The heavier set man with a dark argyle sweater placed his own personal bin on top of mine, the one with my laptop inside. When he reached the other side, he took the 2 bins and placed my Macbook Pro in a backpack and scurried away.
Other TSA officers were summoned and showed up a few minutes later. Collectively, about a half dozen officers searched the Main Terminal at LaGuardia, but were unable to find the perpetrators. I must say this was a horrid beginning to any vacation, particularly since I knew I could not afford to replace the computer any time soon. I also received several calls from NY/NJ Port Authority detectives once I got back and they were issuing an arrest warrant for Grand Larceny for this perpetrator, but the problem was they could not identify him.
As with all things, the silver lining was that I never stored too much personal data on the laptop since I had a home storage drive and I regularly transferred files over. I did lose some family pictures I will never be able to recover, but due to all the circumstances surrounding my divorce at the time, maybe it was for the better that I lost them. The worse part has been that it's now almost a year later and I have not been able to purchase another laptop. I have learned to do without and I will NEVER travel again with my own personal laptop.
I did file a claim directly with the TSA regarding my stolen laptop. After about 2 months, I finally received a reply from them denying my claim on the basis that I was negligent in not watching my possessions. They even went as far as to inform me over the phone that they could not replace everyone's property or else no one would be careful when traveling with their personal items. So yeah, according to them, having your expensive electronics stolen by thieves is nothing but fun for us who are victimized. They are not responsible although it is mandatory for you to surrender them prior to going through the machine. And of course, there are no signs at the checkpoints stating this either or else no one would surrender their items. No offense, I feel that is a big load of big time Bullshit!
The kicker is that after that, your last legal remedy is to sue them in District Court, which is the court for military crimes and government agencies. It was about $350 to file for your case to be heard, not to mention 4 copies of all the forms and paperwork you need to submit to substantiate your case, and of course, there were no guarantees. I knew I would most likely lose since it was little me against the entire TSA....come on, there is no contest so I didn't feel like throwing away another $350 on top of the $2,100.00 I had already paid for the stolen laptop to file a case which would go nowhere. Not to mention my strongest evidence was the security footage which was owned by the TSA. So the loss was that much greater. Yes, I am certain there is some type of appeals process after this, but at that point, unless you just want to prove a point, is it worth throwing away more money to get nothing in return?
So lucky for me that recently I got a bonus at work, and it was about half the cash I would need in order to buy a new Macbook Pro with comparable specs to the one I lost last year. These past few days, I have been researching prices on Macbook Pro's. I am considering purchasing a refurbished model. A new 15" Macbook Pro right now starts out at $1,799 + tax = $1,956.41 + free shipping with the following specs:
Other TSA officers were summoned and showed up a few minutes later. Collectively, about a half dozen officers searched the Main Terminal at LaGuardia, but were unable to find the perpetrators. I must say this was a horrid beginning to any vacation, particularly since I knew I could not afford to replace the computer any time soon. I also received several calls from NY/NJ Port Authority detectives once I got back and they were issuing an arrest warrant for Grand Larceny for this perpetrator, but the problem was they could not identify him.
As with all things, the silver lining was that I never stored too much personal data on the laptop since I had a home storage drive and I regularly transferred files over. I did lose some family pictures I will never be able to recover, but due to all the circumstances surrounding my divorce at the time, maybe it was for the better that I lost them. The worse part has been that it's now almost a year later and I have not been able to purchase another laptop. I have learned to do without and I will NEVER travel again with my own personal laptop.
I did file a claim directly with the TSA regarding my stolen laptop. After about 2 months, I finally received a reply from them denying my claim on the basis that I was negligent in not watching my possessions. They even went as far as to inform me over the phone that they could not replace everyone's property or else no one would be careful when traveling with their personal items. So yeah, according to them, having your expensive electronics stolen by thieves is nothing but fun for us who are victimized. They are not responsible although it is mandatory for you to surrender them prior to going through the machine. And of course, there are no signs at the checkpoints stating this either or else no one would surrender their items. No offense, I feel that is a big load of big time Bullshit!
The kicker is that after that, your last legal remedy is to sue them in District Court, which is the court for military crimes and government agencies. It was about $350 to file for your case to be heard, not to mention 4 copies of all the forms and paperwork you need to submit to substantiate your case, and of course, there were no guarantees. I knew I would most likely lose since it was little me against the entire TSA....come on, there is no contest so I didn't feel like throwing away another $350 on top of the $2,100.00 I had already paid for the stolen laptop to file a case which would go nowhere. Not to mention my strongest evidence was the security footage which was owned by the TSA. So the loss was that much greater. Yes, I am certain there is some type of appeals process after this, but at that point, unless you just want to prove a point, is it worth throwing away more money to get nothing in return?
So lucky for me that recently I got a bonus at work, and it was about half the cash I would need in order to buy a new Macbook Pro with comparable specs to the one I lost last year. These past few days, I have been researching prices on Macbook Pro's. I am considering purchasing a refurbished model. A new 15" Macbook Pro right now starts out at $1,799 + tax = $1,956.41 + free shipping with the following specs:
15-inch: 2.0 GHz
- 2.0GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7 - 4GB 1333MHz
- 500GB 5400-rpm1
- Intel HD Graphics 3000
- AMD Radeon HD 6490M with 256MB GDDR5
- Built-in battery (7 hours)2
- OS Lion
A refurbished 15" Macbook Pro sells for $1,489.00 + tax = $1,621.15 + free shipping with the following specs:
Refurbished MacBook Pro 2.0GHz quad-core Intel i7
Originally released February 2011
15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen display, 1440-by-900 resolution
4GB (2 x 2GB) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm
8x double-layer SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel HD Graphics 3000 and AMD Radeon HD 6490M
OS Lion
0 comments:
Post a Comment