Israeli airport security, clearly always on high alert, shot the hell out of a young woman’s laptop at the airport. Incredibly the HDD survived.
In her words:
I went inside to check on my bag. I had left it unattended, where they instructed. It was still there so I went back outside.
Moments later a man came outside and introduced himself as the manager on duty. And then, “I’m sorry but we had to blow up your laptop. “
What….all my client case notes and testimony, writing, pictures, music and applications. Years of work. NO!!!! What?? Are you insane?? What were you thinking? THAT’S ALL MY WORK!?
After much yelling, crying and frantic phone dialing (don’t be alarmed if I called you repeatedly this morning), he took me outside to see the wreckage. It turned out it hadn’t been quite blown up, but rather shot through with three bullets. We were able to extract the hard drive, seemingly unscaved. Thank goodness.
![p1070618 620x465 Can your macbook take a bullet? Erm...no. [pics]](http://thenextweb.com/shareables/files/2009/12/p1070618-620x465.jpg "p1070618 620x465 photo")
![Screen shot 2009 12 15 at 7.51.20 AM Can your macbook take a bullet? Erm...no. [pics]](http://thenextweb.com/shareables/files/2009/12/Screen-shot-2009-12-15-at-7.51.20-AM.png "Screen shot 2009 12 15 at 7.51.20 AM photo")
What the heck kind of a gun did they use?? Those holes look like they were made by a .50 cal rifle!
At least the picture shows that the trackpad is, in fact, made of glass.
haha, true on both points :)
Well the Desert Eagle is made in Israel
Yeah I always leave my macbook unattended, I guess she had it coming.
Always make backups!!! ;-)
OMG! What did they think it was? An Apple bomb?
why the heck did they have to shoot the laptop?! i dont get it.
You are darn lucky those shots clustered where they did and were not spaced out more. If they had pumped some more lead into your MacBook or had a different shot pattern, chances are your HDD would be dead as well.
Just out of curiosity, you did have a current backup, didn’t you?
Security guards are morons.
Guard 1 : “Hey i think that laptop looking thing is a bomb!”
Guard 2 : “We better shoot it!”
Guard 1 : “Yeah, shoot the bomb! shoot the bomb!”
morans…
notreal is right!
If I wanted to hide a bomb in an airport I would put in a big red box marked BOMB!
Says the guy who thinks moron is spelled, “moran”.
Moran is well-known internet slang, originating with this picture: http://chrisvreeland.com/moran.jpg
Hahaha, Cris got pwned.
I laughed hard enough to nearly spew coffee imagining 2 guards standing over a bomb satchel plugging rounds into it until they leapt 150 feet into the air and scattered themselves over a wide radius.
I’m sure they shot from a distance – but still funny.
Morans you say?
He meant “Mormons”
Couple of interesting notes:
In the article “We were able to extract the hard drive, seemingly unscaved.” should be “unscathed”.
Also, the poster above attempting to ridicule clearly incompetent security personnel, decided to call them “morans”. I don’t know what a moran is, but I do know what a moron is. Can you guess?
Somebody buy her a dropbox account or something.
*sigh.
the ‘morans’ thing, it’s a joke. a pretty well known one.
http://memewatch.com/thelist/archives/pix/morans.html
I see sarcasm is, once again, obviously lost on elitist mac users…
noteal,
Israel has huge problems with bombings so any unattended bag is suspicious, especially if it has electronics like a laptop. you can build a decent bomb in one after all. it is pretty much standard procedure to take a suspicious package out to a safe area and shoot it with a .50 cal sniper rifle. it is how they take care of a lot of IEDs in Iraq. and they wouldn’t be security guards, the would be explosive experts who did it, most likely military since it is Israel.
“moran”
This level of paranoia is seriously unfounded and a danger in itself.
Not paranoia. If you lived in Israel and had bombs blowing up every other day – you’d be thankful the security forces are that alert.
We could use some of that here (USA).
Really? Every other day? Please cite source.
No way, a hole from a .50 cal is larger than your fist; probably a standard glock. The bullet didn’t go all the way thru?
why would you leave your $1000+ laptop alone?
crazy Israeli’s
What a moron! You deserved every bit of this. There are frequent announcements (in English too) in Ben Gurion Airport NOT to leave your belongings unattended.
erm, unscaved? I think you mean unscathed.
Just sayin….
Editor in Chief – unscaved.
I’m just sayin’
From Urban Dictionary:
Unscaved – The uneducated version of unscathed.
plonker – i didn’t write that. They are her words.
Good thing they gave it back to you before they noticed all that cocaine that was spilling out from it. Close one there.
So were you smuggling blow, or is that why Mac cost a bit more? Because they’re powered by yummy Bolivian marching powder?
Macbook – you can snort it.
nega, you cracked me up. Same thought & same humor at the same time.
Terrorists.
Uh, great story. So are we to understand that you didn’t even ask WTF they were thinking?
Lame.
Wow! What an apple fanboy will not do! Really we are suppose to believe that any airport security will use a gun on a laptop? Give me a break!! I guess that’s the reason I’ll never get rich – I give people too much credit for having common sense!
Not paranoia. If you lived in Israel and had bombs blowing up every other day – you’d be thankful the security forces are that alert.
We could use some of that here (USA).
“I had left it unattended, where they instructed”
So it seems like they TOLD her to leave it unattended or am I missing something?
Apple needs an app for that!
I wonder what the soldiers that shot it said after they realized it was a macbook.
Yea, this is funny but I feel obligated to throw in my two cents. I live in Israel and lets just say that sometimes it is better to err on the side of safety. You don’t leave stuff unattended anywhere. Period.
And for anyone curious about the gunshots – it’s not like they called out Rambo to demolish the laptop. There is this radio-controlled robot which drives up to the suspicious object, places it inside a armored chamber within itself and shoots a number of small caliber bullets through the object.
Laugh at the paranoia but I have had friends killed in terrorist attacks and it sucks.
Not sure if this would be my response if that would have been MY MacBook.
If you notice in the pictures… The macbook did stop the bullet, making the macbook bullet proof. Kind of like a vest or a car. It stopped the bullet from hitting you. So if she had this on her back and was getting shot at she would at least still have her life. Granted that all the bullets hit the macbook and not her.
I love the Elektra sticker in the lower left corner of the first pic…
Noobs, those are clearly *NOT* bullet holes but anti-bomb robot holes. The robot tries to trigger the bomb in a controlled environment so there’ll be minimum damage to both humans and property.
They probably thought it’s a bomb or some sort, because believe me, there are cheaper ways (and ones that include less bureaucracy) to destroy ones laptop.
Troll:
Furthermore, I honestly think bombing all the Mac’s out there is a good idea, Mac sucks :P
Let’s see.
A nation heavily on the watch for people blowing themselves up, leaving bags of explosives to blow up, etc.
An unmarked bag left in an ideal target location.
You go figure.
H’mmm are those “security” on the microsoft payroll?
I’d love to shoot my macbook pro, i’m just too poor to replace it.
This cracked me up. I am thinking the owner of the laptop probably had a clock / alarm type screen saver on at the moment with a ticking sound. I mean really what where they thinking. They are in an airport with XRAY machines to scan for such things, toss it through the x-ray machine rather than shoot it.
But on a serious note, As someone who uses a laptop regularly for business / travel I just got in the habit of carrying a mobile hard drive or Thumbdrive with all my files on.
Obviously PC fans…
Go teh PC!
It bothers me that everyone, including the author, found this laughable…oh they thought her laptop was a bomb and shot it haha! She is American.
If she was Palestinian, she’d be stuck in a cell for 6 hours getting asked why she was there, who she was going to visit, how long was she there for, what was the purpose of her visit, where was she staying and where did she come from…or worse.
Israel is committing ethnic cleansing and their paranoid and indoctrinated military personnel do whatever they want.
I’m going with a breaching round. Plastic cup filled with iron powder. Ensures that full force of round is absorbed by object and eliminates over-penetration.
“What….all my client case notes and testimony, writing, pictures, music and applications. Years of work. NO!!!! What?? Are you insane?? What were you thinking? THAT’S ALL MY WORK!?”
What kind of professional doesn’t back up “years of work”?
This is either a scam, or just a really stupid professional.
I mean, I’ve worked with many professionals of all different types, and not one I know would go YEARS without backing up their important work. So long story short – FRAUD.
Omerta is just crazy. Just look at his name even, propaganda? Decide for yourself.
You have our sympathy!
I can’t believe you haven’t backed up your files. What were you thinking? I’d be pissed if someone shot up my laptop but would I lose the last few years worth of work? Lol. No.
Ok, so if they thought it was a bomb, why shoot it? Seriously, who shoots a bomb????
Wow dude that is major cool dude!
RT
http://www.total-privacy.es.tc
Folks are really funny. She doesn’t get it, the page author doesn’t get it, and half the readers don’t get it. Sounds like the robot at least knew what was going on.
@ suspend, only idiots ask that in a country as rife with attacks as israel, if you have no idea what I or anyone else on this post is talking about, I suggest you get outside of that little box you live in, and read something that’s known to other people as “The News”. Thanks.
haha,m noone noticed the odd sticker/picture on the bottom right of her laptop, lol.
they dont screw around in israel when they say “don’t leave your bags unattended” the mean it.
what were you thinking leaving a package unnatended in Israel?? Don’t you realise that bomb threats are a real and serious problem?
I bet US taxpayers payed for the bullets too.
No freaking way would I ever leave my laptop unattended anywhere in a public place, least of all a high security airport….
Does applecare cover IDF Bullsh!t?
That’s ridiculous. I’m happy your HDD is ok.
If they thought it may be a bomb, shooting at it doesn’t appear to be a wise thing.
And one shot appears to have missed the HDD by a hair. Very lucky.
i saw this kind of thing in action”!
they use a small robot that shoot .5 … i want 1 of this 4 xmas
I can just imagine it:
“You have reached Apple Hardware Support. My name is Bill and I will be assisting you today. I understand your computer fails to boot and I’ll do everything I can to resolve it for you today. Before we get started can I get you to verify the company name or the owner of the system? Will you provide details about the issue you’re having? …”
jeff geelering you douche. If your going to say something as stupid as “oh my god those look like big holes” and then proceed to name the one type of ammunition you know and not be too specific as not to alert anyone of your lack of common military knowledge. in short stfu please and it was probably made by a 7.62mm galil assult rifle.
OK, when is it Ok to shoot a bomb? How would this disable it?
Never seen bomb disposal people shooting bombs.
well… it’s a good thing we don’t have you protecting our airports….
i read this story a couple of days ago. the Mac was shot by the bomb squad robot! that’s how the robot disposes bombs… and it was police not army.
BUT i’m sure you know so much better than them…
That’s what you get for using a Mac. :)
unscaved?
I have to echo Mark’s statement. I cannot think of a single suspicious item where the proper response is to shoot it. Unless they thought there was a poisonous cobra in the bag shooting it makes absolutely no sense. Bomb? Container of poison gas? Biological hazard? None of them are neutralized by bullets. In fact, shooting any of these things would likely result in loss of life.
Either the Israeli guys knew what it was and shot it for fun or they are a bunch of retards.
This is a crazy story! I have no clue why the Israeli soldier shot the computer but I got to commend his actions, its not like he stole the computer, he admitted to it and was very polite and apologized, in America it would be stolen and no police would admit and say sorry!
Or the story is made up
Yeah .. sounds made up, or at least fabricated. She didn’t hear the gunshots? Very odd indeed.
Nice Photoshop work…not…
Seriously…sounds fake…especially the part that she was targeted because she’s an Arab…and the anti-Jewish photos on her camera.
Why would they just give the laptop back to her…evidenced by it being photgraphed on her bed…FAIL.
Also- the computer has only been out for a bunch of months- and your quote says “years of work ect.” shes totally fabricating the story. She must have things backed up if she actually has “year of work” on there.
Also why cant I see teh wholes through the screen?
The story itself is plausible. When suspected explosives are found they are indeed “shot” to either; destroy the trigger mechanism or to set off a controlled explosion. This is NOT done by a handgun but with a remote controled robot. This is a standard method and most police stations – and certainly airport police – will have such equipment.
So, you can’t have years work on a new computer? I change computers every two years and I transfer all my data each time. Currently use a MacPro tower which has work from 1996 and emails from 1999. Do you delete all of your documents each time you move to a new computer??
somebody must like the pc instead huh?
You should be able to see through to the bed via holes in the screen – fake!
In the original blog, you can see a third picture, a closeup of the screen and you can see through.
http://lilysussman.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/im-sorry-but-we-blew-up-your-laptop-welcome-to-israel/
Apparently the picture of the screen has a black cloth behind
So I trust they’re paying you for a new MacBook Pro?
Im a cameraman in Poland and few years ago I was making a documentary about antiterorists on Polish airport and they used a watercannon to shoot at suspicious bags and objects. Water at high speeds can be as destructive as bullets so I think that the story is true.
What da fish !!!!!
But how on earth they shoot randomly at the laptop !!!
Fake and lame