Security screener at NY airport fired after slipping 'you ugly' note to passenger

A two-word note has gotten a New York airport security worker canned after it was given to a passenger.

Neal Strassner, who says he regularly travels through the Greater Rochester International Airport, told NBC News that a security guard handed him a torn piece of paper with “You ugly!!!” scribbled on it after he passed through the checkpoint in late June.

Bro I am dying ? RT @Phil_Lewis_: Airport worker fired for slipping traveler a note that read: 'you ugly' https://t.co/wDrPzASjpK

— Robert S. House (@He_Sincere) August 17, 2019

Strassner, 40, obviously didn’t find it funny. He recently obtained a copy of the security footage from the interaction through the Freedom of Information Act.

He told NBC that he heard the female worker shout at him as he was walking away: “You going to open the note?”

According to the New York Post, she doubles over laughing and can be seen in the video slapping the top of a luggage scanner.

“I was more confused than anything,” Strassner said. “I kind of just looked at it and thought, ‘That was weird.’”

He told the Post that instead of handing out demeaning notes, the interaction would have been received differently if the message was more light-hearted.

“What about a note that says, ‘Hey, next time bring me tacos’?” he suggested.

Strassner, who works as a technical coordinator, was headed to Wichita for business. He said he called the airport that afternoon to file a complaint and was told to check in with security after his return flight.

He said he got the impression an airport supervisor he met with later in the week didn’t believe him.

The person who handed him the note was not employed by the federal Transportation Security Administration. but rather VMD Corp., which is contracted through the TSA.

According to news accounts, VMD assured Strassner it would contact him by Aug. 13, but that didn’t happen.

When he hadn’t heard from them, he uploaded the nearly two-minute video to Reddit on Thursday.

Within two hours, the company contacted him, which he says is indicative of “the power of the internet,” NBC reported.

TSA told NBC that the employee was fired.

Airport security worker fired after video shows her passing note to traveler: 'You ugly!': https://t.co/0JEhVwboId via @AOL Is she laughing now? They really hire some top notch security. Makes you worry about how safe we are with some idiot like that working at screening.

— Christina Schaefer (@Christi78906661) August 17, 2019

“TSA holds contractors to the highest standards and has zero tolerance for this type of behavior,” the company said in a statement. “… The employee has been since terminated by the contractor.”

VMD did not reply to the outlet’s request for comment.

In the meantime, Strassner told NBC he still thinks highly of Greater Rochester International Airport.

“I fly out of there all the time. They’re actually a pretty good airport,” he said. “Out of all the airports I go to in the country, it’s one of my favorites.”