PHILADELPHIA Police search for laptop with airport screening info

The FBI has become involved in the case.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- An instructor teaching a group of new airport security screeners had his laptop stolen after leaving it in a hotel meeting room during a break in the seminar, officials said.
The laptop contains sensitive -- but not highly classified -- material, a Transportation Security Administration official said. The files outlined standard airport screening procedures such as the use of magnetometers, which anyone visiting an airport could view.
"It is not any kind of reverse road map to penetrate the security system," TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield said Wednesday, a day after the apparent theft. "Nonetheless, it's not something that we're interested in seeing proliferated or distributed publicly."
Who owned it
The theft occurred between noon and 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in a meeting room at the Embassy Suites Hotel near Philadelphia International Airport, authorities said. The computer apparently belonged to a subcontractor hired by Lockheed Martin, which has the contract to train federal airport screeners, Hatfield said.
The instructor and a hotel employee together checked to ensure that the room was locked during the lunch break, Hatfield said. However, the room had a second door that may have been used to gain entry, he said.
Both local police and federal investigators, including some from the FBI, were working on the case. An FBI spokeswoman referred all questions about the case to Hatfield.
The approximately 25 students in the training session were among about 200 new airport screeners hired in Philadelphia. The TSA has offices at the airport but has been conducting some training offsite because of the influx of new employees, Hatfield said.