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Lose your laptop at Newark Airport? Join the club

We bet a bunch of people spent their flights getting up close and personal with the inflight magazine's crossword puzzle. What's a three-letter word for D'OH?

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper
2 min read

Recognize your lost laptop or tablet here? The Transportation Security Administration shared this photo on Instagram on Saturday with a caption explaining that these computers were all left behind at security checkpoints at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport in November alone.

We count around 75 laptops and tablets of all shapes, sizes, makes and models, some with colorful designer cases, all surely containing important documents and photos and other info that their owners mourned all the way to their destinations.

"The most common way laptops are forgotten is when travelers (sorting out items at security checkpoints) stack a bin on top of the bin their laptop is in," the caption notes. "Out of sight out of mind."

The TSA suggests travelers tape a business card of piece of paper with contact information to the bottom of the computer they're traveling with. "This will allow us to attempt to contact you via a page or phone call before you board your flight," the post notes.

Missing something? These are all laptops that were left behind at Newark (EWR) checkpoints in November. When a laptop is left behind, it's recorded in the lost and found log at the airport and stored in a secure location. If you leave a laptop (or anything else) behind, you can access a list of lost and found phone numbers for each airport at TSA.gov, or you can reach out to our AskTSA team via Twitter or Facebook Messenger. The most common way laptops are forgotten is when travelers stack a bin on top of the bin their laptop is in. Out of sight out of mind... If you haven't already, tape a business card or a piece of paper with your name and contact info to the bottom of your laptop. This will allow us to attempt to contact you via a page or phone call before you board your flight. It will also allow us to contact you if you've already left. #TSATravelTips

A photo posted by TSA (@tsa) on

The photo immediately touched a nerve with viewers. Wrote jardeew, "This is the saddest picture I've seen in a long time."

Others were looking to make a deal. "Happy to take those off your hands for a few thousand bucks," wrote sourcerock.

The TSA Instagram account often shares images of items that clueless travelers tried to take onboard. Recent shares included photos of a model of Lucille, the barbed-wire-wrapped baseball bat from "The Walking Dead," and a bullet-adorned gas mask. The last post before the pile of computers showed a hot-sauce bottle designed to look like a flash-bang grenade.