With software synthesizers and easy connection to the Internet away from
home, laptops are great tools for keeping in touch away from home.
However, criminals are organized to take the laptop away from you if you
are not careful.  Maybe it's because I've lived in big cities all my
adult life, but I never let anything out of my reach unless me or someone
else is completely attending to it.  Generally, I keep most things
strapped around my neck or on my back, making it impossible for thieves to
take it without a fight.  the article below describes more and the
operating mechanisms of today's laptop takers.

kelly

the New York Times


March 29, 2000

BUSINESS TRAVEL

Airport Thieves Focus on Laptops

By JOE SHARKEY

     It used to be that if your briefcase was stolen while you were on
     the road, you'd probably be out no more than a nice leather bag,
     some pens, some easily replaced papers and maybe the morning paper
     and a Snickers bar. But today, the travel accessory of choice for
     thieves is a laptop or notebook computer, and losing one of those
     babies can really cause a problem.

     Consider a current furor raging in Britain, where in a single week
     earlier this month, two agents with the British intelligence
     services lost their laptops, which were "packed with priceless
     state secrets," swooned The Sun, a British tabloid. One was stolen
     from a careless spy who set it down briefly on a subway platform;
     the other was "mislaid" by a spy who "got blind drunk," according
     to The Sun.

     Nothing quite so dramatic has happened in the United States. Still,
     laptop thieves are having a prolonged field day in airports, hotels
     and other places frequented by business travelers. Safeware Inc.,
     the largest insurer of laptops and other computers, said that its
     clients reported 319,000 laptop computers stolen in 1999, a 5
     percent increase over 1998. In 1997, however, such thefts jumped 28
     percent.

     A good many of those laptops are being stolen at airports,
     sometimes by organized rings of thieves. "There are teams operating
     at every major airport in the country," said Weldon L. Kennedy, a
     retired deputy director of the F.B.I. who is now the vice chairman
     of Guardsmark Inc., a security services company with 115 offices
     nationally. "It's very easy to do, with very low risk."

     Mr. Kennedy's company doesn't work in airport security. He just
     thought it would be a good idea to pass on a general heads-up to
     business travelers about the way laptop thieves operate.

     Of course, the best way to steal a laptop is to simply lift one
     that has been carelessly left unattended or unwatched. But the
     teams working airports specialize in a more clever method, he said.

     It works this way: A two-person team waits by a busy security
     checkpoint for someone carrying a laptop. They then fall into place
     in front of the mark. One of the thieves passes through the
     metal-detector gate without incident. The other waits till the mark
     has placed the laptop onto the conveyor belt, and then walks in
     front of the mark and through the gate in a way that deliberately
     causes a backup.

     "This guy has all kinds of metal on him to set off the alarm," Mr.
     Kennedy said. "The security manager asks him to step back, empty
     his pockets, go through the device again."

     In the meantime, the targeted computer has already emerged on the
     other side, where the first thief simply walks off with it while
     its owner waits to get through the gate and fetch his or her laptop
     from the belt. By then, both thief and laptop are "nowhere to be
     seen," Mr. Kennedy said.
     _________________________________________________________________

   A rising number of laptop computers are being stolen at airports by
   organized rings of thieves.
     _________________________________________________________________

     The trick works because travelers at crowded airport security
     checkpoints, already somewhat distracted by the ordeal of passing
     through a metal detector, typically can't see clearly beyond the
     security people and machinery to "where your stuff comes out on the
     other end," Mr. Kennedy said.

     "All the thieves have to do is delay you," he continued. "In most
     airports, as crowded as they are, in just a few seconds somebody
     can meld into the crowd very fast."

     Avoiding losing a laptop this way actually requires only a little
     more alertness to your immediate surroundings at the security gate,
     Mr. Kennedy said. "When you finally put your computer on the belt,
     just make sure there is no one right in front of you, and that you
     can easily maneuver yourself to see the other end of the belt," he
     said.

     Given the fact that laptops are stolen from hotel rooms, or damaged
     in other ways on the road, insuring them has become a thriving
     niche business. Increasingly, said Brian Haase, a marketing manager
     at the Safeware insurance company, companies are telling employees,
     "Here's your $4,000 laptop, and if it gets stolen, it's your
     responsibility."

     Many regular homeowners' insurance policies "won't touch laptop
     loss with a 10-foot pole," Mr. Haase said. This opened up the
     opportunity for Safeware, which is based in Columbus, Ohio, and
     sells a policy on a $4,000 notebook for about $100 a year (with a
     $50 deductible). "We're in a great niche," Mr. Haase added.


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