An airport employee working for Delta Air Lines in New York City allegedly stole a child’s Peppa Pig-themed iPad and filmed explicit X-rated videos on it that then popped up in the family’s iCloud account, subjecting them to unwanted graphic images that caused “severe mental and emotional distress.”
In a new lawsuit filed in a South Carolina district court, Brooke and Tory Brewer are suing Delta Air Lines and a third-party ground handling company for a slew of actions, including sexual assault, emotional distress, harassment, and negligence.
The Brewers were embarking on what should have been a fun-filled and eagerly anticipated trip to London for a summer vacation in July 2023, but soon after their return, they were bombarded with the x-rated content, despite repeatedly notifying Delta.
According to the civil complaint filed in district court, the Brewers started their journey in Charleston, South Carolina, with a connection in New York JFK for their onward flight across the Atlantic to London.
When they got off their first plane, the Brewers accidentally left the iPad, protected by a bright pink Peppa Pig case, in the seatback pocket. They only realized their mistake once they were on the next flight, so once they arrived in London, they reported the lost iPad to Delta.
By this point, Brooke Brewer noticed from the ‘Find My’ app that the iPad had been seemingly taken out of the airport, although it was still close by in Queens. Soon after, ‘selfies’ of an airport worker in a Delta uniform taken on the iPad popped up in their iCloud account.
A week after filing the lost report, the Brewers were horrified to discover that pornographic images of the same airport workers had now been uploaded to their iCloud account, including videos of the workers masturbating in his uniform.
The Brewers immediately got back in touch with Delta to alert them to what was going on. The complaint, however, appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
A week went by without any response from the airline, at which point, another x-rated video of the same employee was uploaded to their iCloud account. At this point, they also noticed that the perpetrator had managed to access their iTunes account and create his own profile, as well as their household Amazon account.
“What should have been a fun family getaway was riddled with confusion and anxiety over unauthorized access to their personal devices, a breach of privacy, and the transmission of highly inappropriate, explicit video recordings sent through their child’s personal devices, something they never would have expected,” commented attorney, Tola Familoni of the Motley Rice law firm, which is representing the Brewers.
Familoni believes that Delta should “be held accountable” for its negligence in this case.
For its part, Delta explains that despite wearing a Delta uniform and badge, the suspect was working for a third-party vendor called Unifi, which provides airport ground support for a number of airlines across the United States.
The Brewers, however, contest that Delta should have promptly after they reported the iPad as lost.
Matt’s Take
From a passenger’s point of view, whether or not an airport worker is directly employed by the airline or through a third-party vendor should be inconsequential. That worker is representing the airline and the same behaviors and standards should be, quite rightly, expected of that employee.
In this case, the Brewers had no way of directly complaining to Unifi. They had to report the lost iPad to Delta, and so it was down to the airline to take the appropriate action, using photo evidence and data from the ‘Find My’ app to track down the culprit.
It still surprises me that airport workers would even attempt to steal a misplaced iPad, iPhone, or even iPods. The power of the ‘Find My’ app to trace these devices is now very well known, and there have been lots of cases of airline workers getting caught red-handed with stolen gadgets.
IMO, ridiculous lawsuit. Family demonstrated negligence by not properly accounting for their possessions before departing the plane.
However, Delta will pay the family big bucks to make this go away. Especially now that it has gotten into the media.