Airports collect laptops. Are we to blame?

A new study released Monday by Ponemon Institute LLC found 637,000 laptops are lost in airports every year. (I am astonished. I understand laptop's being stolen, but how can you lose a large rectangular thing that can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars? It's not like a cellphone that can easily fall out of a bag without making a lot of noise.)

The worst part is that laptops are commonly lost at security check points. I don't understand. At the security checkpoints:

1. You take out your computer
2. Put it on the conveyor belt
3. Go through the metal detector
4. Walk to the conveyor belt to get your shoes
5. Your laptop at this point has gone through and you put it back in your bag
6. Then walk away (with your shoes on)

Please explain to me how, during this process, 10,278 laptops are lost every week at 36 of the largest airports and 2,000 from mid-size airports. (I'm not done. It get's worse.)

"About 77% of people surveyed said they had no hope of recovering a
lost laptop at the airport, with 16% saying they wouldn't do anything if they
lost their laptop during business travel. About 53% said that laptops contain
confidential company information, with 65% taking no steps to protect the
information."

ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?! If I lost my laptop, (which would never happen because I'm not THAT blonde) I would be calling that airport to the point that they would give me a new computer just to stop calling. (They would probably give me one of the many lost laptops sitting around).

I am also wondering why people don't put password security on their laptop accounts and "confidential company information." It's not that hard to do, but for those of you that it is we have a solution. Absolute Software Corp. created a tracking device called LoJack that reports it's location via Internet connection. The other option is to get a Dell that has GPS technology and "data protection services" that enable you to remotely delete data on a hard drive and recover data from failed hard drives.

What I was really thinking about after reading this article was what do they do with all the lonely and lost laptops sitting around? Do they auction them off to employees? Do they give it back to trolls that steal them to sell them on eBay? (which could explain how the airline companies stay in business with rising fuel prices) OR are they collecting all the laptops to make a super laptop to take over the world. (A little out there, but we should never rule anything out.

On that note, maybe I shouldn't rule out that it could be human error on our part.