April 25, 2000: FBI Agent O’Neill Temporarily Loses His Handheld Computer that Contains Details of His Contacts

John O’Neill, special agent in charge of the FBI’s national security division in New York, leaves his Palm Pilot handheld computer, on which he has the details of his police contacts stored, behind after attending a baseball game, but fortunately the device is not stolen and he is subsequently able to retrieve it. O’Neill realizes the Palm Pilot is missing as he is driving home after attending the game at the Yankee Stadium in New York. The device is loaded with contact numbers and O’Neill is panicked at the thought of losing it. He calls security at the stadium, and explains that he works for the FBI and may have dropped his Palm Pilot from a pocket while he was at the baseball game. A guard goes to search for the device and soon finds it under a seat in the area where O’Neill had been sitting. O’Neill, relieved that it has been found, immediately goes back to the stadium to collect it. Many of his friends will later say this “lapse by the usually flawless O’Neill showed the strain on his mind” around this time, caused by his frantic work schedule and his complicated personal life, according to journalist and author Murray Weiss. [New Yorker, 1/14/2002; Weiss, 2003, pp. 276; Wright, 2006, pp. 294-295] O’Neill previously got into trouble for taking his longtime girlfriend to a secret FBI garage and letting her use the bathroom there (see Summer 1999). [Graff, 2011, pp. 260-261] He will get into trouble again after his briefcase, containing classified material, is stolen when he leaves it unattended during a conference (see July 2000). [PBS, 10/3/2002; Wright, 2006, pp. 317]