The TSA did not steal my computer.....
 

First I want to apologize to the TSA for rushing to judgment without more facts, title of my previous thread was based on assumption. Here are the facts....

So my computer was recovered Friday by Seattle detectives and is on its way home to its rightful owner, me!

As you know from my other thread my computer was stolen out of my checked luggage somewhere between Anchorage and Las Vegas with a stop over in Seattle on Alaska Airlines Tuesday night. I had to wait until Wed morning before I could start reporting the theft to anyone. I started with the TSA by going to their website and printing out the claims packet. Filled out the documents with a description of events and submitted copies of boarding passes, etc and emailed to the TSA. Next I called Alaska Airlines and reported the incident to them. They took my info and said someone would be contacting me for a more detailed report in the next couple days. No call back yet from baggage services. Last I contacted the Las Vegas PD and filed a property crimes theft report over the phone since this is where I live. I got a case number from all three places. My Wed is shot.

So now what? How am I going to get compensated for this loss and replace my computer? Sit around and wait? Nope....

Thursday. After doing many google searches and research I read a lot of other horror stories of similar events from other travels. So I decide to go trolling on Craig's List for a MacBook Air 13.3 for sale. I start in Anchorage and there are just a handful of postings, none of which match my laptop. So I search the Seattle listings and there are about 50 listing for Mac's in the last two days. I'm able to eliminate almost all the adds except for a couple that look promising. I click on the newest posting, it's only about 6 hours old. Same processor, same memory, same size hard drive, HOLY CRAP...the seller has posted the computers serial number on the listing and it is an EXACT match to mine! I just found my stolen computer, the seller is 30 min south of Seattle in Auburn, WA. Asking price $850, I paid $1,550 in Jan '13 w the Apple Care warranty.

So I send a text to the seller asking if computer was still for sale and it was. Awesome. Let the seller know I was interested and wanted to meet tomorrow (Friday) to take a look at. He picked a McDonald's to meet at, I told him I'd try to get off work early and drive down there late afternoon. Next call was to the Seattle PD asking for there help in recovering my stolen property. I'll spare you all the details of how many hoops I had to jump through back and forth between phone calls and additional reports and paperwork w the LVPD and Seattle PD all day Thursday before I made positive progress.

Friday morning comes around and I finally get a call from a detective in the Auburn, WA area. After getting him up to speed on all the details of events, I forward him the string of 20 text messages between me and the seller and he agrees to go meet the guy and pose as me. So together we set up a sting operation to catch and arrest the seller. Everything went exactly as planned and the detectives were able catch the guy and get my laptop back! Chalk one up for the good guys :)

As it turns out the seller is a 19 yo college student (IT major) that has been buying laptops from some 3rd party guy on the cheap, wiping out the hard drive, reformatting the computer and then reselling them for the last 6 months. He is cooperating w the police now to catch the real thief to avoid charges. The kid says the thief has been going through as many bags as possible and stealing whatever he can get his hands on.

So a baggage handler went through my luggage some time during my 1:45 layover in Seattle. As it turns out Alaska Airlines has no baggage handlers in Seattle, they contract out their baggage service to a 3rd party company to save money.

So the detective complimented my on my nice investigation skills and thanked me for serving this guy up on a platter for him. I'm just glad I'm getting my computer back :)

DON'T EVER PUT VALUABLES INTO YOUR CHECKED LUGGAGE!

Sorry for the long post~PT!

That's awesome!
Nice work on your behalf, glad it worked out.

The good guys win...great work!

Behold the benefits of outsourcing....

The TSA did not steal my computer.....
 

Awesome job! If you wanna get something done right, you gotta do it yourself. May the true thief rot in a cell for a couple of years.

Awesome! During a renovation of our home a 3 yrs ago, we had the movement (mechanics/face) of an early American grandfather clock, built in 1750, stolen from our garage where it was being stored. My wife spent almost 2 yrs googling, calling auction houses, getting advice from the Antique Roadshow, guy, etc. Eventually she found a picture of it on the internet, which lead to more googling, where I found it sold on eBay, which led to a court order forcing eBay to release info on the seller. Turned out to be a carpenter working on our renovation (we actually suspected him). He sold it on eBay for $1200, the clock is valued at $50k-$125K. He plead guilty on April 1st to felony larceny and felony possession of stolen property, $2800 restitution for expenses incurred searching and recovering the clock (original buyer had sold it to someone else and that was another googling nightmare in finding that buyer), and 6-17 months in jail, unfortunately, suspended.

I love when the good guys win. Great work!

Nicely done PurpleTail! Glad you got the guy, who will get THE guy behind these thefts. For all the hassles this entailed, if nothing else, setting up the sting with the Seattle PD must have been really rewarding and just totally cool. I bet you would've liked the Detective to have a live camera with him as it was all going down. :D

Did Alaska Airlines at least give you a couple of free RT tickets to a destination of your choice? You should request them! They owe you that much, after you did all the work they created for you, as a direct result of their outsourcing baggage handling.

Thanks for the update. Glad you got it back. I'm guessing you lost all your data though. That sucks.

Great news!

Why do Alaska Airlines, TSA, FAA think this is acceptable behavior and they can get away with this? Why isn’t Alaska Airline responsible? :eek:

In a different and unrelated story, When my son was in High School he purchased a laptop on Craigslist (in a parking lot, no kidding). Something just didn't seem right to him. He managed to track down the owner that it had been stolen from (apartment break-in) and returned it to the police.

To his (and my) surprise ... the DA didn't pursue getting his money back as park of court ordered restitution? $200 was A LOT of money to a High School kid. Sometimes it hurts to be honest.