Neal Strassner, a passenger, was walking through a security point at the Greater Rochester International Airport in New York earlier this year when a security officer gave him a note that sad “you ugly”.
Neal said that he was confused after the officer gave her the note.
After he started to walk away, the security officer shouted and said: “You going to open the note?”
When Neal opened the small brown paper, he saw “You Ugly” written on it.
Neal registered a complaint against the unnamed security officer after the incident.
Earlier this month, it was reported that the airport worker has been removed from their services.
An investigation was done by the Transportation Security Administration.
During an interview, Neal explained what happened.
He said, “I got handed a note, I didn’t really think too much of it. I just kept going. I had 10 minutes to get to my gate. That’s what I was focused on and I kept going, the woman called back to me are you going to open that? Are you going to look or something like that?”
Neal reported the matter to a supervisor of the airport and made a Freedom of Information request to the airport so he could obtain the CCTV Footage of the incident.
Neal said he is worried that the prank could offend some other people who are traveling through the airport.
Neal said, “I’m assuming it was meant to be a joke I don’t think she was maliciously trying to insult people, but you really don’t know if somebody was in that mindset, and they received that piece of paper. It would throw them back to a dark mental place.”
He added, “You never don’t know where somebody is in their head. They really could be in the worst spot ever and it’s like a smile would be great for that person, honestly you don’t have to throw insults like that.”
TSA released a statement about the incident.
They said, “TSA holds contractors to the highest ethical standards and has zero tolerance for this type of behaviour.”
“This instance, which involved a contract employee, was investigated immediately upon receiving the complaint by the traveller. The employee has since been terminated by the contractor.”
The woman who handed the note to Neal was not an official employee of the Transportation Security Administration or the Greater Rochester International Airport in New York.
The woman was working at the international airport through VMP Corp, a security company based in Virginia.