An airport worker contracted at Greater Rochester International Airport in New York, USA has been fired after her strange interactions with a male traveller. The unnamed female security worker was caught on CCTV handing a note to passenger Neal Strassner. The handwritten note, penned on a small slip of cardboard, allegedly read “You Ugly!!!” local news site Rochester First reported. The surveillance video clip has been uploaded to Twitter where it has rapidly gone viral.
Strassner told Rochester First that he had passed through the airport security checkpoint without a problem and took the missive from the guard.
He can be seen in the footage stopping and looking at her as she passes him the bizarre note.
She allegedly called after him: “You going to open the note?” before laughing out loud.
The video came to light after Strassner obtained it through a Freedom of Information request.
He has said that while the incident didn’t upset him, it could have negatively affected someone else.
“You never really know where somebody is in their day or their head,” he told ABC 13. “The more you think about it, the more you realise it’s easier to smile than to do this.”
Strassner also said he believed he wasn’t the only person to have been given such a note.
“At the end of the video I requested, she literally just takes a pen out of her pocket and starts writing another one,” he said. “So, I know I wasn’t the only guy that got one.”
Twitter users have been horrified by the video and have shared their thoughts and feelings on the woman’s behaviour.
One person posted on Twitter: “Very mean spirited woman with an ugly heart,” another added, “Terrible!”
“He’s not even ugly! How awful!” a third wrote, while another commented: “Not normal behaviour.”
A TSA spokeswoman told Express.co.uk regarding the incident: “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.”
In further aviation news, Cathay Pacific flights now film their passengers using CCTV cameras installed onboard the aircraft.
The new monitoring system was revealed in the Hong Kong carrier’s updated privacy policy. Images taken by the CCTV are part of the “personal data” the airline will collect.
CCTV cameras will be in operation in both aircraft and airport lounges, the airline explained.
Its privacy policy states that “your images captured via CCTV in our airport lounges and aircraft,” are among the personal data they’ll collect.
This data information will be stored by the carrier for “as long as necessary.”