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TSA Employee Caught With $200K Worth of Stolen Property
The plane moves me or I move the plane? writes "After years of people complaining about their luggage locks being broken in the name of the Transportation Security Administration, and after countless properly-stowed utilities and tools had been scrutinized from a paranoid point of view, an employee of the TSA (which is part of the Department of Homeland Security) has been captured with evidence of over $200,000 worth of stolen property he was selling on eBay. With the help of local police and the USPS, a search of his house found a great deal of property pilfered from the un-witnessed searches that occurred after luggage had been checked, where the rightful owner was not allowed. 'Among the items seized were 66 cameras, 31 laptop computers, 20 cell phones, 17 sets of electronic games, 13 pieces of jewelry, 12 GPS devices, 11 MP3 players, eight camera lenses, six video cameras and two DVD players, the affidavit said.'"
jesus christ.
i'm mailing my shit next time.
"If for any reason you're not satisfied with our service, I hate you."
And a partridge in a pear... TREEEEEEEEE!
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
And yet another reason why flying in the US sucks.
"Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?"
(But who is to guard the guardians?)
Juvenal, Satires, circa 120 AD
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
You yanks are safe from terrorism!
Your own officers is a different matter though...
Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity
After having my TSA-approved lock ripped off of my new suitcase on its very first trip and basically told to F-O about complaints over it (Oh, it might have gotten caught in the machinery, and btw, why are you locking it at all) this is vindication - but no better protection than yesterday - of what a lot of us have been saying for a very long time. Yes I want my flight to land as safely as it took off since I'm in it, but providing a secret open hunting ground for minimum wage employees doesn't cut it for me.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
that there might be people who find this surprising.
You could just fedex it. Unless your time is worth less than like, $5 an hour.
These are the modern day (government approved) highwaymen and the only solution I can think of is to label them socially ("you work in airport security? oh dear - is that the time already ...") as the pariahs they really are.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
According to TFA, Brown has been employed as a screener since 2002. How much has he already sold?
Are there more sophisticated screeners in organized crime?
I'm so disgusted we pay people to waste our time, harass us, and steal from us. I'm looking at you, dept. of homeland security and TSA. Go out and get productive jobs, you leaches.
...why the TSA is allowed to open up packages without the presence of the owner of said packages. If they were forced to page the owner to come back and observe the TSA performing a screening on the contents, that would cut down a lot on the opportunity for this type of theft to occur. If the owner doesn't respond to the page from the TSA, then the package simply is not allowed onboard is a fair policy I think. Also, make sure that the TSA personnel are required to fill out paperwork for every package they page the owners for will cut down on abuse of powers as well.
Imagine all the photographs of naked children that could be taken with 66 cameras.
Imagine all the child porn that could be download/stored/viewed using 31 laptop computers.
Imagine all the phone calls paedophiles could make with 20 cell phones.
Imagine all the children that could be lured into a paedophiles house with 17 sets of electronic games, and 13 pieces of jewellery.
Imagine all the children that could be tracked with 12 GPS devices.
Imagine all the children that could be deafened by paedophiles letting children use 11 MP3 players at high volume.
Imagine the sick movies made and viewed using six video cameras and two DVD players.
And the eight camera lenses......dear God the eight camera lenses!!!
I remember reading a statistic recently citing that over 100,000 laptops were "lost or stolen" within the realm of airline travel. Now I wonder how many of these occurrences are inside jobs.
I guess TSA Gangstaz (NSFW!) was actually a documentary then...
Then epoxy it together. When I get to my location, I tear it apart and buy more cheap luggage. Problem solved. I suppose now someone will see this and make epoxy illegal.
I remember clearly the latter half of September 2001. Of course there were the plastic flags flying from almost every motor vehicle, but what stands out for me is the memory of how I kept scanning the horizon for explosions when I was driving.
I didn't feel safe. Not that I'd ever been safe, but my perception had always been so.
The thing that still puzzles me, though, is how we in the US have tolerated such a rapid erosion of civil liberty. It's not that our documented rights and freedoms haven't been violated all along, but now there are legal provisions--and already some legal precedent--to protect and justify such violations.
Sure, sure, human psychology, thinking with the fear centers of our brains, even the Milgram Experiment--these and more describe how we react to a perceived threat. And fear is known to reduce the blood supply to the brain.
I find it sad to consider that this particular finding will have no effect on the encroachment on human rights in these United States. I suppose this man is just one "bad apple." Like the cases of the prosecuted torturers at Abu Ghraib (and other locations), the years-later finding that the illegal and shocking techniques were known and even encouraged by the entire organization will have no effect on the policies which shall remain in place.
"Press to test."
(click)
"Release to detonate."
"She [Unselding] also said that his crimes were rare and that less than 300 TSA employees have been terminated for theft.
"The actions of a few individuals in no way reflect on the outstanding job our more than 43,000 security officers do every day to ensure the security of the traveling public," she said. "
What an interesting statistic. 300/43000 = 0.7%. So, catching 0.7% of their employees stealing isn't significant? And those are only the ones caught. And yet we hear all the time on /. about the next expensive and probably worthless scheme to screen terrorists is okay even if it yields a percent or two of false positives along the way??
It's pretty pathetic if they can't even trust their own staff to the tune of 0.7%. Maybe they should improve their security.
but I am comforted to learn from the article that:
I read that as
"CLOSE TO THREE HUNDRED EMPLOYEES HAVE BEEN TERMINATED FOR THEFT!"
I like microcars
The best part of the article is near the end. Something along the line of "Don't worrie, crimes like these are REALLY rare. Only about 300 TSA employees have ever been fired for theft".
300 employees fired for theft. If you read the article (i know, i know...) the only reason this guy got caught was because he's a retard (putting his return address on the stuff he sells, always using the same name on ebay, etc). So if 300 were caught, there's probably several times that many. Then you add that the TSA has like 40-45 thousand employees... and that adds up to 2/3rd of a percent of their total workforce (of course, the 300 figure is over time, but its still interesting to put the numbers in perspective).
Thats just insane. It takes only one person to steal enough to really ruins some people's days. And here you have -hundreds- (just the ones that were caught!!!). I'll suffer through GreyHound busses, thank you.
I previously read on /. a method of shipping your camera gear safely.
A reader had said he'd purchased a larger aluminum suitcase / roadcase, with foam cutouts for his camera gear, and a flare gun.
Upon arriving at the airport, he'd declare he had a weapon, and check the suitcase as a weapon. It got stored, handled and inspected differently, and he never had any loses.
Seems to make sense to me...
And if nobody was supervising him to make sure he didn't steal things, what was to prevent him from introducing dangerous items into the luggage?
How hard would it be for someone with ill intent to get a TSA job?
... for traveling light. Avoid checking any luggage at all, carry on only! Not only do you save time by not having to wait around for your luggage (which may never arrive) at the belt, but you can also stay within view of your gear.
This works fine for me when I go on short personal trips, but most of the time I find it's not just not practical. I'm always carrying something prohibited. The carry-on restrictions with regards to liquids finally pushed me over the edge. I wear contacts, use hair gel, like deodorant, prefer to brush my teeth and actually shave. This pushes me beyond the one small clear bag that I can hold up while some goon pretends to be able to tell if it's potentially explosive.
Then there's the problem that when I travel for work, I'm usually carrying a firearm. Even if I'm not, being from southern Ohio I never go anywhere without my trusty pocket knife (which has to be checked).
Believe it or not I was once told by a TSA supervisor that by having a gun in my luggage I'm probably least likely to be ripped off. Since it's in a locked case in my suitcase, presumably the thief would think it's valuable and try to bust it open. Upon finding it's a gun if he's smart he'll close it up and run away. If I get to my destination and find my gun is missing, unlike say a stolen iPod, both airports will likely go on lockdown until it can be accounted for. Even a $7.00 hour grunt realizes that everybody down there will be searched and all the video tape will be immediately reviewed. As an added bonus, TSA hand screens my checked luggage in front of me when I check in. They then seal it up with the "Passed TSA Security" sticker while I stand there. Theoretically it then goes straight to the airline and bypasses the other checked luggage that has to be screened by some unknown down below.
Oh wait, this is real hard property...
That is not exactly an encouraging number.
How dare you criticize anything the administration does during any of the wars they fraudulently start.
If you criticize anything you're with the terrorists.
It's all being stolen for your security.
Most of that equipment could be used to access or record information that could undermine the current administration with stuff like facts.
... sorry but this shit just ain't acceptable.
Its another of a long and growing list of government abuses that are easily amounting to be worse than the terrorism its supposed to be protecting us from.
"Those who sacrifice freedom in exchange for security, will have neither."
who said that?
When you pay people roughly minimum wage to run security.
You don't exactly get the best people and you get the opportunity for theft.
That said, my electronics NEVER get checked. They go through the x-ray machine where I can keep a fairly good eye on them.
465 transportation security officers have been terminated for theft since May 1, 2003
Does anyone find this a little extreme? That's a little over one firing for theft every 4 days!
Makes one wonder...
I was traveling through Cincinnati Int'l, where you have to go through security to get out of the airport (which is dumb as hell) - I speak french, and had just arrived from Paris. I witnessed firsthand a TSA employee trying to wrongfully take something from a person who clearly didn't speak English, and the employee was taking advantage of this - it wasn't until I intervened and demanded a supervisor come before the agent let up.
What the fuck is up with this?? If this is SOP for Security Theater, the sooner the TSA and DHS fall apart, the better.
Quiz: True or False -- On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your middle name?
He should've at least used the stolen laptops to run BOINC projects, that insensitive clod!
Taking Stuff from Airtravelers
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Quoting the TSA:
The actions of a few individuals in no way reflect on the outstanding job our more than 43,000 security officers do every day to ensure the security of the traveling public," she said.
I'm of South Asian ethnicity and have a few Middle Eastern friends. We're all used to getting the secondary protocol at the airport due to our last names. Funny how they say a few bad TSA employees shouldn't reflect upon the other employees, yet they treat anyone with a brown shade of skin as a criminal.
But this summer, Brown got too ambitious for his own good, allegedly stealing a $47,900 camera from an HBO crew and a camcorder from a CNN employee, authorities said.
Steal from Joe Sixpack and Lizzy Hockeymom all you want. But don't screw with corporate media!
-- I Am Not A Terrorist.
How appropriate. Cameras ARE weapons. The pen being mightier than the sword and the picture worth 1000 words.
If I were in charge of things, there'd be security cameras recording the inspectors. Also, each inspector who opened a bag would be required to stamp his/her identity number on a tag affixed to the bag. If anything was reported missing, those inspectors would be the first ones looked at, particularly if their id number shows up on a lot of bags with missing items.
You're not prevented from locking your luggage. The TSA doesn't want you to lock your luggage because they're searching it after you check it. Therefore, locking it makes it difficult for them. However, if you lock it, they'll deal with it. You might not like the way they deal with it, but they'll deal with it and you've broken no law by locking your luggage. TSA does offer a compromise; you can use one of those locks they have keys to. It's not foolproof; there have been lots of reports of those locks being destroyed. However, it's worth a shot.
Some of us have been forced to learn the ins and outs of this crap in more detail than we wish. If, like me, you travel with firearms, you'll learn that the FAA is statutorily in charge of what can and can't be checked and the TSA can't order me to do anything that violates FAA regs. FAA regs mandate that luggage with firearms must be locked. Period.
There are some tips and tricks for dealing with this situation but they're beyond the scope of this discussion. My point is simply that it's incorrect to say that we're "prevented" from locking our baggage. We most assuredly are not.
Try flying into Australia with no luggage - Customs staff suddenly get very interested in you when they realise, and only being in town for the day does not seem to satisfy their concerns.
FWIW, you can carry arbitrary sized bottles labeled saline solution for your contacts.
Note that they need only be labeled as saline solution, you can put whatever you want in them.
See this story where the guy brought two big bottles labeled saline solution and when the TSA gangsta asked him, "why two?" he said "one for each eye" and the gangsta let him pass.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
So I have a good friend who is on the rather kinky side. Last year, he went on a trip to a certain event that involved bringing various "toys." So he packed various items into checked luggage, and went through the security screening. When he arrived at his destination and opened his luggage to unpack, he discovered a slip of paper that indicated that his suitcase had been opened by a TSA screener.
What he found remarkable was not the paper itself, but where it had been located. It was very neatly and securely wrapped around a large black rubber dildo.
The first thing that came to mind when he told me this was to ask whether he had put it in some kind of ziploc bag. (I am a big fan of storage bags.) He replied, "Why would I do that?" I then pointed out that perhaps the person who put that paper there would have chosen to "handle things differently" (gloves notwithstanding) had they given some thought as to where this object has been.
The moral of the story, my friends, is don't put anything worth stealing in your checked luggage. For example, I would never put computers or electronic equipment in checked luggage. That is like putting a giant bulls-eye on your stuff, saying, "STEAL ME." And sometimes, putting something a little...distasteful might even help prevent stealing. I imagine the TSA screener wasn't about to abscond with an already-used (though clean, my friend claimed) sex toy.
If you pick express overnight guaranteed and it does not show up, get your money back. I've done it. If it does not show up at all, file a claim. I've done that, too. I have shipped hundreds of packages over the years. The success rate is over 99%. I have NEVER lost a penny shipping stuff. CYA. I HAVE has computer equipment damaged and destroyed (never stolen) in checked baggage.
UPS might drop your package 3 feet (they specify this explicitly), but the airline might drop your bag out of the plane onto the tarmac. Ouch.
More like "Whose watches do the watchers get?"
The place has really gone downhill since the median age here dropped by half a couple years ago.
Not particularly. I've been off and on myself, but the popular perception of any online forum is one of which rose-colored glasses are involved. I do not see any substantial change in "quality" since when I started. Actually as I've refined my BS filter, the quality of today's Slashdot is pretty good.
I follow the Timothy May principle - if an online forum (or mailing list) does not have the quality you wish, contribute more.
(I do not get the reference either, but perhaps that's because I do not watch TV and I've been outside the US a long time).
2 weeks ago I had a car part "overnighted" friday night from nanaimo bc to ottawa ontario (both places in Canada) they "guaranteed" noon on monday, tuesday they told me it was "on time" for delivery that day (a day late) wednesday they said they "might" have lots the package, but that it would take 8 days to check...
Thursday, desperate for the part as I was stranded at the other end of the country until it arrived I had a replacement sent, this time guaranteed by 10:30am friday (but UPS insisted I had to pay again) both parts arrived on friday at 10:28am.
UPS charged full price both times and refuses to reimburse even the shipping cost on either part (let alone my hotel bills and other expenses) because both arrived, even if it took 7 days for their "next day early morning" service.
Their guarantee is essentially meaningless.
Why is any TSA employee allowed to leave the baggage area with a laptop under his arm?
Search the employees on the way out, problem solved.
No sig today...
All decisions on whether or not to open a piece of luggage should occur at the moment the luggage leaves the hand of the customer and enters the custody of the airline.
I liked the way they do luggage at Pensacola. The big fancy TSA full color x-ray machines are right there in the middle of the lobby, roped off. You check in, then take your luggage to the TSA goons, which scan it and tag it while you watch. I suspect the scanners are only out in the open because the airport is so small they don't have room for them elsewhere, but I think it ought to be like that EVERYWHERE.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
I wouldn't consider that unusual at all. If I can get to somewhere by car in 8 hours, I'm not even going to consider flying. I'm not going to save any time or money by flying, and the amount of hassle and stress is far lower.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Only when the TSA requires every bag to be ticketed with the screener's information and timestamp every inspection, including a key fob to keep track, and require every employee to be a two man team, will thefts cease.
I've had probably close to 2000$ worth of merchandise, DVDs, and company equipment stolen. I once had government owned assets stolen out of a travel case.
I now dupe all my DVDs before taking them out on the road and I pack notices in each bag of company equipment: Government Owned Asset. The serial is recorded and registered with the manufacturer. Value is over 1500$ and will be prosecuted as felony theft: The government has an infinite numbers of lawyers looking to nail your ass to the wall- why steal this sort of trouble?
Oddly enough I've only had one bag 'misplaced' since I started the warning notices and then it was returned, a week later, from Vegas.
thought I was nuts for checking my clothes and carrying my computer gear on business trips, many hard drives, two computers, some media, a PS2 slim, basically everything of small size and high value goes in my carryon luggage, the security check is a b*tch but its their job and I've (knock on wood) yet to lose anything; I have however learned not to use the bags that I use for shooting my rifles, the nut jobs actually picked up powder/residue of a foreign nature and flagged me to secondary search.....
Unix, an obscure operating system developed by bored researchers in an attempt to get a better game playing experience.
I think the original plan with TSA was to make it more of a police-type organization, to provide a more law enforcement feel to airport security.
What we ended up with was just a replacement for the shopping mall security that individual airports had used before -- a dead end, low-wage job, poorly performed by a statistically over-represented number of minorities, now featuring uniform attire from airport to airport, a more surly attitude and all the personnel efficiencies of government bureaucracy, unionization and hiring mandates like affirmative action.
Yuck. Every airport I've been they've always been total losers: surly, slow, uncooperative and sometimes uninformed of TSA procedures.
I wonder what impact the use of those big scanners on the ticketing concourse has on stealing. I think bags that pass those scanners get shunted directly to airport baggage handlers, where theft from luggage may be procedurally more difficult. If the scanning takes place once ticketing has taken your bag, especially if its done in a separate area, I think you're at much greater risk, since they can open bags largely at will.
It seems to me that the ability to own shitloads of guns hasn't been used very effectively over the history of the USA to enforce the constitution or the rights of human beings. It still might in the future, but I'm not optimistic. [emphasis added]
Uh...the Revolutionary War, for starters? The one in which the citizenry was literally and very directly the militia? Or perhaps, if you want to pretend that the history of the USA started as a discrete event when the Constitution was ratified, the Civil War?
I don't mean to start an oft-repeated discussion, but come on. At least try a little bit first.
some of his stuff:
CANON 70-200MM F2.8 IS USM CAMERA LENS (#330273445930) US $1,377.00 View Item
SONY CYBER-SHOT DSC-H2 6.0 MEGAPIXEL DIGITAL CAMERA (#330266370672) US $187.50
2POCKETWIZARD PLUS II AUTO-SENSING WIRELESS TRANSCEIVER (#330270282144) US $290.00
NIKON NIKKOR 70-200MM F/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR LENS (#330268673893) US $1,400.00
APPLE MACBOOK PRO 15" 2.4 GHZ, 2GB, 200GB, LEOPARD (#330268578840) US $1,600.00
CANON EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT WITH 18-55 & 28-210MM LENS (#330268925938) US $405.00 View Item
SONY DCR-DVD710 DVD HANDYCAM CAMCORDER (#330265931216) US $227.50
OLYMPUS EVOLT E-500 8 MP SLR W/14-45 & 40-150MM LENS SONY DCR-PC115 MiNiDV HANDYCAM CAMCORDER see again www.croccandy.com Seller:
No doesn't sound like someone who is stealing from bags...
"(I) have this unfortunate condition that causes me not to believe a single thing any politician says when a mic's on.
Simply paid off. The majority lives off the minority who pays the bulk of the taxes. Income redistribution makes for some very lazy and apathetic people. There is nothing about fairness in a progressive tax, it is all about control.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Fuck you for using them to push your police-state agenda.
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
Air marshalls do it. They carry a stack of paperwork with them. It's tough for a foreigner to get a concealed-carry permit in most countries but it can be done. Where it can't, air marshalls don't fly.
Anyone on a diplomatic passport can do it. (Note that in some countries, this is frowned on and if carrying a gun isn't part of your job, you don't pull this crap with complete impunity.)
Head-of-state protective details do it. (They are also covered under the previous point.)
Hunters do it. Anywhere there's big game to be hunted and money to be made from rich Europeans or Americans who will spend multiple thousands of dollars to fly to your country and shoot your exotic animals, there will be some exceptions built into the law to allow the temporary importation of firearms.
Target shooters do it. Olympic rifle, pistol, and shotgun teams travel pretty much unimpeded (yes, there's paperwork and approvals to be completed long beforehand) to any place holding a competition. I have friends who travel to Brazil to compete every couple of years, each time carrying a pile of pistols. The world benchrest championships will see teams from all over the world going to whatever venue is selected. It happens *all* the time.
No, Europe and Japan are unlike the U.S. in that you don't throw a gun in your bags routinely just to get better luggage treatment. However, if you have a legit reason, you can take your guns with you to most countries. I'm retiring soon and the list of places I want to go to compete, carrying a couple of pistols with me, is too long for me to be able to afford them all. However, over the next few years I expect to take my guns to some subset of: Finland, France, Czech Republic, Spain, Russia, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and Brazil.
Dude, you are lucky that you (sorry, your "friend") are not currently spending time in a Turkish prison.