Posted on 09/28/2012 12:38:29 PM PDT by Mount Athos
A convicted TSA security officer says he was part of a "culture" of indifference that allowed corrupt employees to prey on passengers' luggage and personal belongings with impunity, thanks to lax oversight and tip-offs from TSA colleagues.
"It was very commonplace, very," said Pythias Brown, a former TSA officer at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey who admits he stole more than $800,000 worth of items from luggage and security checkpoints over a four-year period.
"It was very convenient to steal," he said.
Brown is one of almost 400 TSA officers who have been fired for stealing from passengers in the past decade. According to the TSA, 381 TSA officers have been fired for theft between 2003 and 2012, including 11 so far in this year.
Congressional critics say the theft problem is no surprise, given TSA's failure to do proper background checks on personnel hired to handle security screening.
"TSA is probably the worst personnel manager that we have in the entire federal government," said Rep. John Mica, R-Florida, chairman of the House Transportation Committee. "It is an outrage to the public and, actually, to our aviation security system," he said.
Assigned to screen luggage behind the ticket counters, Brown said he often worked alone, was told when overhead surveillance cameras to prevent theft were not working, and was never asked about suspicious behavior.
Even the special TSA locks sold for luggage won't work, Brown says, because TSA employees learned how to pick them without being detected.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
TSA employees are all alike.
Think Henry Waxman, mad at the world because they always got picked last for kickball teams.
FIRED but NOT imprisoned?... must be mostly black...
TSA is nothing more than a Bush Administration jobs program for the chronically unemployed.
Wonderful security force we have there, a home for unemployed Muslims and other criminals.
The article says he was convicted, but it doesn’t say by who, or if he received any type of sentence. It makes me wonder what the Feds have done to the rest of the thieves. He lost his job, but is there any permanent legal record of his thievery that he and others would have to disclose when applying for a job? Somehow I can’t see the government prosecuting all of these people in court, because they possess the same attitude of indifference as the thieves. They’d rather go after someone like Sheriff Arpaio for doing his job.
800,000 over 4 year means he was stealing almost $1,000 a day. That is a lot of stealing. He had to have taken the job with stealing in mind from the very beginning.
Traveling while having anything of any tangible value in your luggage is a near-guarantee that you will lose it. If you need to transport anything of value, send it via FedEx or UPS or USPS, whichever you like best. If it’s in your bags, it WILL get stolen. And you are absolutely helpless, because the airlines will do nothing to investigate your complaint, you have no proof the item ever entered your bags, you probably do not have a receipt, and frankly, nobody is going to care. If the airline loses your ENTIRE BAG, that is a different story.
If you’re on vacation and you buy a trinket, my reco is to have it sent, with a tracking number, to a friend, or, “hold for pickup at a FedEx facility. Costly? Compared to what, having it stolen?
TSA does nothing to “increase security.” The organization itself does not think, and can not think beyond its boundaries.
But beyond that, the rash of thefts has shown me their greatest weakness. Think about it - if these clowns will risk their job to steal an iPad, who, or what, would they tip-off, or allow to pass through unscreened for say, $50,000?
I still love this story. I was traveling on US Air and my bag was damaged. I went to the Baggage claim area and asked if they could return my broken pieces to me.
Come on you know my wheel and handle have to be either on the plane or in the cart.
The lady looked at me and said, “Here is a complaint form.”
Nice. Oh on the TSA why are old people or Hot women always getting extra searches? I flew many trips and NEVER was patted down. Maybe being 6’4” i might have cold cocked some guy grouping me.
Bad choice of wordz!!
Pythias Brown????
Lemme guess....one of 0bama’s sons, right?
The ONLY shocking thing about this article is that only 400 have been fired.
Work for TSA. It's a license to steal!
They could fire that many from just Miami International for theft from baggage before the TSA ,, now we’re required to leave our bags unlocked...
This is the sort of thing one would expect to find in Third World countries.
This is one reason why the TSA needs to be privatized. As federal employees, they are more protected than private employees.
TSA thinks they are above the law
They could quite probably fire that many from every major airport in the United States.
The TSA is, and has always been, one of the biggest, most corrupt, most pointless, most misdirected, and most over-priced boondoggles in the nation’s history.
TSA is just getting a jump start. We'll be there soon enough.
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