Is that an iPad in their pants or is the TSA just happy to see us?

by Justin Delaney on
It happens every day. You amble up to the TSA security checkpoint, and with the customer service touch of gulag overlords, the TSA officers slowly herd you through to freedom on the other side. They stare you down with steely eyes, inspect your ID with hawkish intensity, berate you for forgetting the hand sanitizer in the deepest recesses of your backpack, and apparently, occasionally stuff your electronics into their pants.

That is what one Florida TSA agent is guilty of – stuffing items of material worth into his TSA-issued pants. Nelson Santiago had all but perfected the art of the security checkpoint heist. He would pilfer items out of screened luggage such as GPS units, tablets, laptops, video cameras and more. He would take pictures of his loot (probably with a stolen camera) and immediately post the stolen goods online to sell. The goods would be turned around and sold before his shift even ended, making him a nimble bastard of the highest order.

And then one day, while casually stuffing a gleaming iPad into his pants, he was caught red-handed.According to the Broward Palm Beach New Times, a Continental Airlines employee witnessed Santiago (left) as he pulled an iPad out of some poor sap’s luggage and slid the tablet computing device into his pants. The authorities were alerted, and Nelson Santiago’s reign as the “Thief of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport” was over. Charged with two counts of grand theft, Santiago was finally apprehended and taken into custody.

While his overall take is an estimated $50,000 in electronics, most of the goods will never be recovered. Santiago has worked at Terminal 1 of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport since 2009. I don’t think he will be making it back to work any time soon.

Remember the movie The Terminal? Robert Wladyslaw Parzelski lived it.

by McLean Robbins on

File this one under “news of the weird.” Robert Wladyslaw Parzelski was sent back to London 18 days after arriving in São Paulo on a one-way ticket … and never leaving the airport.

The story is still unfolding, but Slate reports that Parzelski, a Polish man, traveled on a British Airways flight from London on June 17 on a one-way ticket purchased by a friend in Poland. He was to return with “two telephone sets.” How, when, or why has yet to be determined.

Parleski, who spoke no Portuguese and arrived without any cash, was supposedly meeting a friend in São Paulo, but the friend never arrived, and Parzelski, like Tom Hanks in The Terminal, simply lived in the airport, subsisting on water, yogurt and cigarettes given to him by airport custodians.

When asked what he was doing, he simply replied “I’m Poland.”

This story caught the attention of the Folha de São Paulo paper, where reporters began an attempt to figure out Parzelski’s story.

Newspaper reporters (not authorities) finally found a doctor in São Paulo who spoke the language and was able to speak to Parleski — sort of — and determine that he was, in fact, “lost” inside the airport. The doctor revealed to the media that Parzelski was a father of five from Krakaw, Poland, who moved to London to work as a builder. After he was laid off, he traveled to Brazil at the behest of a Polish friend in London with the mission to return with two telephone sets. Why the telephones? Nobody is sure.

“Before embarking … [we] spotted Parzelski enjoying a dark ale at a bar inside the departure lounge,” the Folha de São Paulo wrote Wednesday.

Parzelski’s story has ended, though. He left São Paulo on a Swiss Airways flight on Tuesday, bound for Zurich and then London.

[Flickr via MarkHillary of Sao Paulo airport]

Emailed photos become instant postcards with Postcardly

by Laurel Miller on

If you’re anything like me, perhaps you’re a bit too…lazy to send postcards when you’re on vacation trip. Like most of us, I got sucked into the convenience of email, and it was a good excuse to not deal with looking for a post office in a foreign country. On the other hand, I love sharing vacation photos. Which, understandably, tests the patience of those who failed to receive a postcard from me while I was on said trip.

If you possess similar habits, I suggest you check out Postcardly. This recently-launched company allows you to email photo attachments from your laptop, an Internet cafe, or your Smartphone. Postcardly will then turn that photo into a real postcard (you provide the text, and they print it up on the back of the card), and mail it to as many people as you want (delivery takes between one day and a week). Postcardly isn’t the first company to come up with this concept, but it differs in that their postcards are the real deal; they’re not a phone app (i.e. no need for roaming capability or a global phone), pop-out cards, or printed on flimsy stock. They’re keepsakes, if you will.

Pretty nifty, especially for kids or people like my dad, who can’t fathom computers (or really, anyone; who doesn’t love receiving a postcard?). Postcardly costs $4.99 a month for five postcards, $9.99 a month for 15 postcards, or a one-time charge of $19.99 for 20 prepaid postcards. Currently, they only mail cards mailed domestically; international service coming soon. Go here for a free trial of three postcards. And don’t forget to write!

Video of the day: Brooklyn fireworks gone astray

by Elizabeth Seward on

Fourth of July Fireworks on South 4th from Steve Smith on Vimeo.

Having had zero fireworks in Austin, Texas for July 4th, I found myself nonchalantly scrolling through my Facebook feed. I was eager to live vicariously through friends of mine seemingly everywhere else who were actually able to celebrate Independence Day via fireworks. I was on the hunt for status updates that would scratch that itch. And then it happened: I clicked on this video that was posted by a friend. In an aim to take a gander at some Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I checked out this little shot here and found myself suddenly grateful that there weren’t fireworks going off in Austin this past weekend.

Considering the purported patriotism of Texans in particular, one that I can at least sometimes back up as being intense, a ban on fireworks for July 4th could have imaginably led to fireworks like the street. And maybe those fireworks would have gone a bit astray like they do in this video. I’m happy I didn’t have to find out.

Billions of dollars worth of treasure discovered in ancient temple in India

by Kraig Becker on

More than $22 billion in gold, gems, statues, and other treasure has been discovered in an ancient temple in southern India, prompting heated debate over what to do with the trove. Meanwhile, authorities scramble to secure the items in the short term, even as more riches are uncovered.

The artifacts were found inside the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, a popular Hindu shrine that was built in the 16th century and is maintained by the Travancore Royal Family. For hundreds of years pilgrims donated valuable items to the temple, most of which were secured away in vaults beneath the structure. Over the centuries, those vaults remained sealed, and an inventory of the items within was lost or forgotten. It is estimated that it has been more than 150 years since the vaults were last opened.

Recently, allegations of lax security at the temple prompted India’s Supreme Court to order an inspection of the vaults, resulting in the massive find. So far, five of the six vaults have been opened and inventoried, revealing chests of rare gold coins, statues of Hindu gods and goddesses, many encrusted in jewels, and other art work dating back as much as 500 years.

The discovery has made the temple one of the wealthiest in the world but has sparked a public debate over what to do with the treasure. The Travancore family insists that the treasure trove remain in their vaults, but there are many who think that the items should be shared with the world by putting them on permanent display in museums.

As tales of the incredible wealth located inside the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple spread, authorities were forced to increase the security detail at the site. Most believe that the $22 billion estimate is on the conservative end of the spectrum, and with one more vault yet to be opened, they don’t want to take any chances with thieves. The temple even installed metal detectors in the past few days to prevent anyone from slipping out with any of the riches.

No matter what is decided, it is likely to be some time before any of the treasures go on display. It will likely take weeks, or even months, to catalog and categorize all the items found in the vault and prepare them for display. Still, it sounds as if this is one very impressive find.