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Comment by jaysonelliot | Hacker News Reader

I left BOTH of my laptops at the TSA checkpoint at O'Hare a few weeks ago. The TSA folks actually went to the trouble of opening the laptop, saw my flight info which happened to be on the screen, and contacted the gate, who called me up so I could go get it.

Experiences vary. In my case, the TSA went above and beyond to save me from my own stupidity.

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The screen wasnt locked?

Does the TSA have a key to open laptops?

They have master password

Windows displays calendar appointments on the lock screen. Not sure about Mac. Maybe that was what they saw and flight name was part of it?

I left an iPad in a seat back once, and didn't realize until I was outside of security. When I told security what happened, I was given a special pass to go back and get it, and the gate agent let me have it only after I accurately described it.

As you mention, experiences vary. For me, the most frustrating and awful part of airports and flying is consistently the other travelers, not TSA or airline employees.

Hehe... how do you accurately describe an iPad?

It’s an iPad 2. There is a 2cm scratch on top right of the screen from where I went skating on it getting out of bed and there is a big dent on bottom from a child dropping it. The back is scuffed as all hell from a life of pain and the Smart Cover has worn the aluminium on the side so far through that it’s almost black. The speaker does odd things regularly from the time it got watered.

How do you even remember that? Regardless, my stuff is in perfect condition, I could only say what emails I got yesterday or what apps I have installed, I guess...

Model, Case/Skin, Charge, Lock screen image. . .

M8, Supcase, Fuck if I know, Default Android 5....

Yeah, I'll take the damn bus.

Apple offers free engraving. My iPod used to say "Stolen from Ted Unangst" on the back.

That would seem to be detrimental to resale value

That's like when Buster Keaton asked a lady to describe a dollar bill.

Hadn't seen that before -- it's in "Sherlock Jr." :

https://youtu.be/cC1aD7e4ZHs?t=256

(There's a bit more to the bit -- give it a couple of minutes).

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