NY Airport Worker Fired for Handing Traveler Note: ‘You Ugly!!!’

A man says an airport worker handed him a note that called him “ugly” as he was passing through security.

“You Ugly!!!,” the note reportedly read. 

Surveillance footage captured the incident and shows the worker, who was employed with VMD Corporation, passing the man the note. 

‘You ugly!!!’: Airport guard fired for slipping mean note to random traveler https://t.co/e2SQUUSJjb pic.twitter.com/oC5al0rlHX

— New York Post (@nypost) August 16, 2019

It all went down at Greater Rochester International Airport when Neal Strassner, 40, was given a small piece of paper by the airport employee. Strassner, who works as a technical coordinator, says he travels frequently for work, NBC News reports. “I was more confused than anything,” the Rochester resident said. “I kind of just looked at it and thought, ‘That was weird.'” Strassner eventually decided to report what happened to the employee’s supervisor. 

“I don’t like throwing negativity around,” Strassner said. “What about a note that says, ‘Hey, next time bring me tacos’?”

The Transportation Security Administration, the agency that contracted the Virginia-based security firm VMD Corporation, released a statement on the matter. “TSA holds contractors to the highest ethical standards and has zero tolerance for this type of behavior,” they said. “This instance, which involved a contract employee, was investigated immediately upon receiving the complaint by the traveler. The employee has since been terminated by the contractor.”

Strassner says that he isn’t letting what happened impact his opinion on the airport. “I fly out of there all of the time. They’re actually a pretty good airport,” he said of Greater Rochester International. “Out of all the airports I go to in the country, it’s one of my favorite.”