Laptop-toting business travelers, and even many personal travelers, tend to trust the hotel staff. Sometimes they take a small amount of precaution, by not leaving cash sitting out on the table or something obvious of that sort. But, overall, we tend to assume that the housekeeping staff (or others with room access) won’t rip off our stuff.

This is a bad assumption. Many, many victims have found out the hard way that valuable items simply tend to walk away, mysteriously, from hotel rooms. One might think (or hope) that the staff can simply be questioned, and the item found. Not so.

Most hotels offer a safe, either in-room or at the front desk. Use it. Store your laptop in there if you are leaving it behind while you go out. Especially if the safe is conveniently in-room, use it when you’re leaving even only for a few minutes.

Or don’t, and find out the hard way how quickly a laptop can “scurry away all by itself.”