US citizen Lily Sussman took a vacation in Israel, to visit extended family there and see the sights — all the usual tourist things. On the way in, though, the security forces got rather serious.
After pulling her aside for questioning, reading her journal and even flicking through her camera to check the photos (hint: don’t take snaps of “graffiti, which read “Fuck” scrawled next to the Jewish star of David”), she was left alone. An announcement was made over the airport speakers, which Lily remembers as something like “do not to be alarmed by gunshots because the Israeli security needs to blow up suspicious passenger luggage.”
In fact they didn’t blow anything up. Instead, they put three bullets through the MacBook, gave it back to the now rather upset Lily and let her be on her way. The security forces didn’t even ask for her password.
The amazing part is that not a single piece of information was destroyed: The bullets miraculously missed the MacBook’s hard drive. And despite the holes rent on the casing, the body of the MacBook has kept together quite well. If it worked, it would be the ultimate case-mod. So what should we take away from this incident? Back up your files. If your computer gets shot by airport security, you may not be as lucky.
I’m sorry but we blew up your laptop [Lily Sussman’s Blog]
