Rochester Airport Employee Passed Derogatory Note to Passenger
Now this isn't something you hear every day. A security screener at the greater Rochester International Airport recently passed the time at work by passing a note to a traveler that came through her line at the security checkpoint.
Believe it or not, that's not even the weirdest part. The note said "You ugly."
Neal Strassner was the lucky passenger she passed the note to, and he told NBC News after he continued through the checkpoint, he heard the worker yell after him if he was going to open the note.
"I was more confused than anything," Strassner told NBC News. "I kind of just looked at it and thought, 'That was weird.'"
Strassner was able to access the footage of the incident through the Freedom of Information Act, and in the video, he seems to laugh it off as he passes the woman. But, Strassner had to jump through some hoops to file a complaint.
When Strassner met with the supervisor at the airport, he felt like the supervisor didn't believe the worker had actually slipped him the note, according to NBC News. It DOES sound pretty strange, right? He found out the worker was contracted through the Transportation Security Administration and technically worked for the Virginia-based company, VMD Corporation. They promised to call him about the incident by August 13, Strassner told NBC News, so when they didn't, he posted the video he had obtained through FOIA to Reddit. VMD then called him within a matter of hours.
"TSA holds contractors to the highest ethical standards and has zero tolerance for this type of behavior," TSA said in a statement. "This instance, which involved a contract employee, was investigated immediately upon receiving the complaint by the traveler. The employee has since been terminated by the contractor.”
Although the situation was jarring and out of the ordinary to say the least, Strassman isn't letting it ruin his experience at the GRIA. He told NBC News he travels on a weekly basis for his work as a technical coordinator, and said he loves the airport's free classic arcade games.
"I fly out of there all of the time. They're actually a pretty good airport," Strassman told NBC News. "Out of all the airports I go to in the country, it's one of my favorite."