"Airport screeners suspected of taking loot from luggage"

Monday, September 27, 2004

Airport screeners suspected of taking loot from luggage
Authorities investigate possible plot to steal from travelers
By Bob Port
The New York (NY) Daily News


NEW YORK - Prosecutors and Port Authority police are probing whether a
federal supervisor at La Guardia's Continental Airlines terminal may have
allowed a conspiracy by Homeland Security screeners to routinely harvest
Rolex watches, Gucci bags and Dell laptops from checked luggage.

And the case may be the tip of a nationwide iceberg.

This month, Homeland Security announced it will pay $1.6 million to settle
claims filed since late 2001 by 17,600 angry air travelers - an average of
$110 per person - half for goods damaged, but half for goods missing.
Another 8,000 claims are pending.

Last month, three bag screeners at La Guardia and one at John F. Kennedy
International Airport were arrested after Continental and American Airlines
sought help when each airline detected spikes in customer complaints.

In April, the airlines bought video surveillance cameras to let police snoop
on federal workers hired to examine checked luggage for explosives.

Detectives watched as several uniformed Transportation Security
Administration screeners used their private work area "like a candy store,"
as one source put it.

To cover their tracks, screeners switched tags on bags from which they stole
with tags on untouched bags, sending suitcases jetting to wrong airports in
pairs.

The four defendants recently waived their right to a grand jury indictment,
suggesting they may be negotiating a deal to testify against bigger fish.

"What is particularly troubling to me is that those responsible for ensuring
the safety and security of the airlines would be engaged in pilfering the
luggage of airline passengers," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said
last week in an interview with the New York Daily News. "If they're busy
looking for items to steal instead of checking for explosives, what does
that say?"

Brown said his investigation is continuing.

TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis labeled the defendants as "a handful of
individuals who have made a bad choice."

When search warrants were executed at the homes of the four screeners,
police were stunned at a department store of goodies amassed in an operation
that had clearly spanned many months. Among other items they found were
laptops, computer projectors, designer clothes and jewelry.

The loot covered 12 large folding tables.

Another law enforcement source said some of the screeners gave stolen items
away as gifts.

"It was extraordinary," Brown remarked. "There was so much these guys were
just incapable of fencing the property fast enough."


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