TSA agent steals $200K worth of gear, resells it on eBay

[82Rigger]

Tue Oct 14, 2008 6:43PM EDT

If you seem to have misplaced your $50,000 camera, this TSA officer has it on eBay for you.

The TSA reached a mind-boggling new low in customer service this week when it was revealed that one agent had single-handedly absconded with over $200,000 worth of travelers' belongings, primarily cameras and laptops, and proceeded to unload his booty on eBay. His latest haul: A near-$50,000 camera that an HBO employee had been traveling with.

The culprit is one Pythias Brown, a New Jersey resident who worked in the TSA department at Newark Liberty Airport. Finally busted, police discovered an inventory of 66 cameras, 31 laptops, assorted jewelry, and more when they searched his home. How'd he finally get caught? Brown snagged a camera belonging to CNN, and they found it for sale on eBay, where Brown had been converting the gear into cash.

Brown's been doing a great job of it too, with a near-perfect feedback rating on eBay.

Of note: Brown appears to have been taking items from checked luggage in the back rooms of the airport, not carry-ons. (One has to imagine you'd notice your $50,000 camera was missing after it came off the x-ray line.) But since consumers are no longer allowed to lock their luggage (or, at least, the TSA is allowed to break those locks as it sees fit), travelers have no real means of protection when it comes to guarding against inside job thievery like this.

What do you do if you need to get something expensive from point A to point B but can't carry it on the plane? Advance shipping through FedEx and the like seems like the only real solution: At least with shipping carriers you can insure the package against damage and theft. But sadly, your contract with the airlines absolves them of virtually all liability when things like this happen.
Another good reason to ship instead of check a bag? Given that airlines now charge up to a whopping $250 for a checked bag, it may now actually be cheaper to have FedEx pick up your stuff at your house and drop it at your destination. How's that for progress?

[Seascamp]

Sure Steve,

We know the predators follow the prey, we know that as sure as we know the back of our hand. Around these digs, the politically protected illegal alien gang thugs harvest the illegal aliens like so many ripe melons in a patch. Damn blood bath coming down as to exactly which illegal alien gang punk gets to go harvesting in the melon patch.

All n’ all there is no reason to believe that same forces will not take advantage of people placed in a no resistance allowed situation. Kind of like traveling through the Beijing airport from Central Europe; if ya don’t carry it or wear it, it’s gone in a poof. Goddamn, the worst pirates are from the routes from Budapest to Beijing and worse yet Aeroflot from Moscow to anywhere.

Scamp

[Seascamp]

Actually Steve, it nets out as $400 max and compensation paid out by the destination airline. So if one’s baggage never gets out of Bejing or Hong Kong on a Philippine Airline flight from the PRC to Manila for example, then, PAL takes the hit. No doubt in my mind that the PRC had to have a troop per bag at the recent Olympic games. Bad ju ju to go to the PRC as a solo tourist or businessman and not part of a tour group; sitting ducks for the Bejing airport pirates, absolutely. Alas, the legacy of Mao; those who eat the most corrupt get be the most corrupt of all.

Scamp

[Packo]

That's what TSA people used to say before they started screwing with Combat Wounded Vets with fake hips.

No surprise. I'm sure more to follow.

Pack

[39mto39g]

I don't know what TSA means? I'm guessing a Bag handler. People stealing at an airport? Say it isn't so. What’s next, selling drugs on the street corner?
In the 50s-60s you could check a $50,000. camera in baggage and it would be there when you arrived, But today’s fine upstanding citizens that work the airports are a little different.
The real problem is that there is no real consequences for actions taken by Brown. I don't wont to feed and house him for years in a taxpayers prison, The officers that served the warrant should have just shot him and planted a gun. THE END.

Ron

[Seascamp]

Ron,

Means airport security, usually rent-a-cop mentality in the US. Not so in Western Europe, they put professionals to the task and they are damn smart about what they do, impressive. I got pulled aside in Amsterdam because I had my flight date revised. A chat with a pretty Dutch gal AP security agent and some cross checking resolved the issue.

Scamp

[82Rigger]

The TSA (Transportation Security Administration) is an agency under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The TSA is solely responsible for carrying out screenings of passengers and their baggage (both checked and carry-on) at 450 airports across the country.

Voluntarily abandoned items are available for sale to the public, if not claimed by their owner. TSA is also working to combat baggage theft in many airports. It is working with local and other federal law enforcement agencies. In Las Vegas, a recent sting operation caught two airport employees stealing weapons.

Transportation Security Officers, or "TSOs" are uniformed federal officers with no arrest powers, and do not carry firearms, OC spray or batons. TSOs are given the power of search and seizure due to language within the 4th Amendment. By purchasing an airline ticket, the person whose name appears on the ticket is consenting to the possibility of random searches of his person and items.

[revwardoc]

http://wbztv.com/massachusettswire/2...anSecurity.xml

Authorities: RI man got weapons on plane at Logan

BOSTON (AP) Authorities say a Rhode Island man twice got pistols and shotguns onto a plane from Logan International Airport to the Middle East.

Munir Alani of North Providence told authorities he transported weapons twice in three years. Officials said he wasn't caught because his luggage was only screened for explosives.

But, according to court documents, customs agents checked Alani's luggage for a September flight to Lebanon and found 11 disassembled firearms. Authorities say Alani said he planned to sell the weapons to friends.

Guns and ammunition must be declared if carried in checked baggage. Alani's lawyer, Page Kelley, told The Boston Globe her client didn't know he had to declare the weapons and has no ties to terrorists.

Alani has been charged with unlawful delivery of firearms to an airline and making false statements.