Not sure where to place this question but hoping someone here can help me.

I bought a laptop from an airport auction. Items that are lost and not recovered for over a year get sent to auction to clear out the lost and found.
This laptop seemed like an okay laptop to use while on the go so I grabbed it from the auction.

I formatted the drives, reinstalled windows and had it up and working. I was doing some windows updates to get everything up to date from the fresh install and when it rebooted I get a message on the screen..

"If this laptop is found, please contact (INSERT COMPANY LAPTOP USED TO BELONG TO) IT help desk (XXX) xxx-xxxx.

Tried calling the company, they want the laptop back and said TSA would have to reimburse me. I dont want to deal with TSA or this company. Is there a way to completely wipe their controls off?

I dont really think you would be getting any advise here, seems sort of in the grayish area.
I assume you have a recipe of your purchase from the airport?
Wouldnt it be better to just call the airport, explain your situation and provide some photos, or a small video you snap on your phone, and go from there, and then just get another laptop?

Doubt anyone will help you with what amounts to stolen property.

Demand a refund as you don't want to deal in stolen property and catch a charge.

Let the tsa deal with returning it to the company or w/e they decide to do.

I would return this to the TSA or whoever was responsible for the auction immediately and demand a refund because the laptop has been reported lost or stolen and was not legally surrendered, otherwise you may find yourself having to deal with more departments namely law enforcement if you were searched with the item on you.

I appreciate the advice. I do have a receipt and this airport auction happens every year. I was hoping that there was a no harm, no foul solution. Its just a PC and those large tech companies I figured would have procedures for Lost devices and wouldnt make a deal of it.

Truthfully I would return it to the TSA etc... but you could just buy another SSD for inside and reinstall windows so Bitlocker isn't activated for lost device. But you decide what you wanna do bud.

Well I think they have something embedded into the device. I had a bitlocker prompt when I opened it the first time. I did a reformat with a clean windows 10 install. Completely wiped the drive through command prompt, rebuilt partitions, etc.

Ill reach out to the auction organizer and see about a refund, and possibly coordinate to give the company the PC back if i can get my money. Their office is, coincidently, only a mile or so from my office.

Sounds like something you might want to just get returned then mate. Laptop's are so cheap anymore... just buy one on amazon or walmart. Also its not embedded into the device per say its shadowed on a secret partition of the HDD.
If you were to put a fresh SSD inside you would be off to the races. But your the one who needs to decide if its a punishable offense or not regardless of your receipt or purchase from airport auction.

This post was edited by WestsKing on Nov 2 2022 12:42pm

Personally would go TSA reimbursement route, if that fails or they want you to do nonsense, try the company. Have company reimburse you for what you paid at auction + s/h. If they don't, swap the drive imo

This isn't the same as I found your wallet on the ground and dropped it in ur mailbox kinda thing. 100% should get your money back or fuck em.


Or could file police report against airport for sale of stolen goods (quick Google) lol

This post was edited by Penguins0690 on Nov 2 2022 03:25pm

Yup well said.