U.S. Airports are Hotbeds for Laptop Loss

Flustered flyers leave behind an astounding 12,000 laptops in U.S. airports each week, according to a recent study (pdf) sponsored by Dell. But here’s the really scary part: The Economist’s Gulliver blog reports that less than 35 percent of those lost laptops are returned to their owners.

On a related note, this video from the British show “The Real Hustle” provides a step-by-step demonstration of laptop theft at an airport security checkpoint. According to these guys, about 3,500 laptops are stolen at U.K. airports each year. Hopefully these numbers will be enough to shock travelers into keeping their hands—and eyes—on their laptops at all times.

Update, Sept. 17: The stat isn’t accurate. Sean O’Neill at This Just In helped sniff out the problems with the number soon after the press release went out about the Dell-sponsored study, and earlier this week the Wall Street Journal also picked over the faulty reasoning.

“[T]he 12,000 figure includes laptops that were briefly lost and then found before they were ever moved,” writes the WSJ’s Carl Bialik. “A follow-up estimate by the institute found that roughly 70% to 85% of laptops left at security checkpoints are reclaimed in the original location, never reaching lost-and-found.”

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