Please Return to Uncle Sam

By Melissa August

Raise your hand if sensitive personal information about you--or someone you know--has been reported stolen or lost by a government agency. As a slew of laptops has slipped away from Uncle Sam and some of his subcontractors, the Department of Veterans Affairs last week raised eyebrows with news that a bulky desktop computer--with thousands of Social Security numbers in it--had disappeared from a supposedly secure office. Here are some other peculiar vanishing acts.

HALLIBURTON A 2004 government audit found that Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root subsidiary could not account for 34% of the U.S. goods it was responsible for in Baghdad (worth $18.6 million), including two armored trucks and a $735,000 generator. KBR disputes the audit.

INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE A laptop with personal information on 291 employees and job applicants, including scans of their fingerprints, was lost recently along with its carrying case after being checked as luggage on a commercial-airline flight.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES Several presidential pardons have been lost or stolen, including seven issued by Rutherford B. Hayes, 11 by Franklin Pierce and 18 by Ulysses S. Grant.

CUSTOMS According to an internal report, between 1999 and 2001, the agency lost 173 lbs. of marijuana, 2.5 lbs. of heroin, 613 badges and 59 weapons--one of which was later used in a drive-by shooting.

STATE DEPARTMENT A man in a tweed jacket walked into a heavily guarded office in 1998 and, in full view of two secretaries, looked through a pouch full of classified documents, put many of them in his briefcase and left.