Forget losing your luggage - laptops take flight at Baltimore-area airports

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - It’s a common scenario — the business traveler feels rushed, carries too many items and worries about missing a flight.

Often lost in the commotion is their laptop.

Business travelers lose about 10,300 laptops per week at the nation’s 36 largest airports, according to a study released this week by the Michigan-based Ponemon Institute.

Laptops are lost, misplaced or stolen every day at large airports like Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan National Airport, said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon Institute.

“The numbers are staggering — you almost want to have some kind of handcuff to your laptop,” Ponemon said.

BWI ranked 21st among the nation’s 36 largest airports with about 125 laptops lost at the airport each week, Ponemon said. Jonathan Dean, BWI spokesman, said the lost-and-found department holds few laptops. The Transportation Security Administration collects laptops lost during security checks, while ones forgotten on airplanes are held by the airline.

“The majority of laptops that are lost in the airport usually are lost at the security checkpoint,” Dean said.

Reagan was tied for eighth with about 450 laptops lost per week, while Dulles was 10th with about 400 lost per week, Ponemon said.

Courtney Prebich, spokeswoman for both airports, said data showed 276 laptops were turned into the lost-and-found at Reagan in 2007, of which 269 were returned to the owner. At Dulles in 2007, 43 were turned in, and 37 returned.

“We make every effort to identify the owner and return the laptop,” Prebich said.

Laptops usually are lost at security checkpoints, departure gates and restrooms, according to the study. The study reviewed 106 major airports in 46 states.

Former Washington D.C. resident Sean Paige lost a laptop after checking his bag in Miami and traveling to the British Virgin Islands a few years ago. When he arrived, the laptop was gone from his bag.

"Airport security makes such a fetish about scanning and frisking every passenger, but we passengers don't know how good security is when we surrender our checked bags and they disappear from view,” said Paige who now works in Colorado. “If someone can so easily remove something from a checked bag, what might someone put into a checked bag. I definitely won’t check it anymore. If I have to, I’ll carry it.”

acannarsa@baltimoreexaminer.com

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