A woman’s horror story of getting her laptop broken while going through the scanner at an MRT-3 station — without getting any sympathy from security personnel — has made the rounds on social media for being every laptop-owning commuter’s nightmare.
Twitter user @allanamarieco posted about her experience on the social media platform, sharing that she had her “worst commuter experience” at the MRT-3 Taft Station in Manila.
Based on her thread, she was queueing up at the terminal during rush hour at 9 pm. She placed her backpack — containing her laptop — flat inside the scanner when another passenger beside her shoved his bag inside the scanner, which caused her laptop bag to spring upright.
“Anyone with a laptop would know to lay it flat on its back to avoid damage [because] of how small the scanner is. Then, the guy behind me forcefully pushed his bag inside the scanner which caused my backpack to be pushed vertically upright,” she shared.
Allana said she saw the situation right away and panicked, rushing to the other side of the scanner but her laptop got jammed inside.
“We all know that the scanner has an emergency stop button but I still don’t understand why [the guards] did not press it even when the conveyor belt stopped,” she wrote.
Eventually, they all heard a loud crack and the conveyor belt started moving again. When Allana retrieved her bag, she found her laptop bent in the middle with a shattered screen.
Allana claimed that the guards turned their backs on her while announcing on the megaphone to place their bags properly inside the scanner so as not to end up like her.
She shared a video of the guards completely ignoring her ordeal.
“Can’t even describe how bad I felt when I heard them say that. You can see in the video that they all had their backs turned against me, all three of them. Just a little bit of sympathy would’ve been fine. But no, they didn’t care even for a while. I felt so bad for myself,” she wrote.
Allana also shared that she would have confronted the passenger who shoved his bag behind hers, but he was nowhere to be found.
Users sympathized with her, who said that the guards should have shown more thoughtfulness and concern.
Some pointed out that this was symptomatic of a culture of apathy.
Others called out the sizes of the scanners deployed at MRT stations, arguing that they are too small for most bags and items to fit in.
Meanwhile, others argued that Allana should redirect her anger and call for accountability towards the passenger who shoved his bag and caused her laptop to crack.
