Monday, May 5, 2008

Mexican Aide Lifts BlackBerrys

1st\NW Quadrant The Approval Matrix

By The Register

A press aide to Mexican president Felipe Calderon has been given his marching orders for making off with BlackBerrys belonging to US officials participating in a summit in New Orleans, AP reports.

Rafael Quintero Curiel admitted removing the devices from the get-together between the heads of Canada, Mexico and the US last week. He said he "thought they had been left behind and planned to return them".

Officials are apparently asked to leave mobile phones and other devices outside meeting rooms lest they interrupt vital matters of state, and Curiel is said to have lifted a few before making his way to the airport - an act caught on CCTV, according to local media reports.

Curiel later explained in a statement to Mexican media that "as he rushed to the airport, he had given them to a driver to take back to the hotel to hand them over to management". He was, however, confronted by US U.S. Secret Service agents at the airport, who asked him to return the kit, and then "thanked him for his help when he explained the incident".

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