TSA Employee Stole $50k Worth of Electronics

mrquagmire writes "A Continental Airlines employee Monday caught Nelson Santiago-Serrano, 30, stealing an iPad from a suitcase in Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office. Over the past six months, Santiago-Serrano told authorities he stole $50,000 worth of computers, GPS devices and other electronics from luggage he screened, took pictures of them to post for sale online and sold the items often by the time his shift ended."

Comments

Re:TSA = Dumbasses

[magarity]

Gee, I wonder if the TSA will still claim, "our boys followed procedure, we stand behind them."

Too bad for him he was caught before they've finished unionizing. If he got away with it a little longer he would just sit in the TSA equivalent to a "rubber room".

Re:Security FAIL

[Pharmboy]

I have a better idea: Only screen for explosives, and let passengers carry weapons on the plane. Then we don't need the TSA gropes and terrorists don't stand a chance.

Re:How many get away with it?

[GNUman]

I once had a Sony PSP and an iPod stolen from my baggage on a Continental Airlines flight going out from Newark Airport (Yes, I should've taken them in my carry on, I had no space left and was overly trusting).

I complained to Continental Airlines and they basically said "Tough luck, we don't go through your baggage, it's the TSA. Take it up with them." They added "We do recommend our passengers to avoid putting any electronics in their baggage".

TSA has a form you can fill to file a complaint. It includes sending the receipts of your stolen objects and witnesses that confirm you did have them in your baggage and witnesses that confirm they were not there when you arrived. Then they supposedly "start an investigation".

I had lost the receipts of my items and being outside the US it was difficult to go to the store and try to get a copy. So I never submitted the papers. I did learn my lesson. Never put electronics in your baggage, it will come up in scans and become an excuse for someone to open it.

How to avoid the TSA thieves

[kwiqsilver]

If you must fly, here's what to do:

• Buy a hard plastic or metal suitcase with locks.
• Buy a pistol, if you don't have one already. (A starter pistol, which has no legal restrictions on ownership or purchase in any state, works just as well).
• Put your pistol in the suitcase, check-in at the counter, and tell the airline rep you have a firearm to declare.
• Fill out the card that says your firearm is unloaded, put it in your suitcase, and lock it (with real locks, not TSA-approved ones), while the airline rep watches.
• Walk down to the TSA screener with the airline rep, and hand your bag over.
• The TSA screener will scan your bag while you wait. If there's a need to open it, the screener will have you open it, and will look through the bag while you watch.

It is illegal for them to open your bag without you being present, if you have a firearm declared. (I guess the government doesn't trust the TSA near guns...if only they'd expand that mistrust to all the federal alphabet soup criminals).

I discovered this accidentally, because I usually take at least one pistol whenever I fly anywhere, and have been using it ever since. If I'm going some place anti-gun, like Chicago or CA, I take a firearm component, like a barrel, which still has to be checked the same way, but can't get me into trouble on the trip.

Re:How to avoid the TSA thieves

[Obfuscant]

I also recommend printing out a copy of the TSA page on flying with firearms, in case you get somebody who doesn't have a clue.

Fantastic. I think everyone who flies should carry one round of ammunition in an original package every time they fly. The rule that TSA will inspect the package at the ticket counter will cause a massive breakdown in the TSA system, as all TSA operatives will be up at the ticket counter inspecting one round of ammunition each and nobody will be available to search bags and steal stuff. It will also require a personal escort to the CTX machines so that the passenger doesn't do anything to the now-searched baggage.

Or, the checkin process will get so backed up that nobody will be able to fly anywhere.

Re:How to avoid the TSA thieves

[erroneus]

That's an excellent point, actually. I knew this but it never actually occurred to me that the fact can be utilized in this way. (I wanted to say "methodized" but I'm not sure that's a work which is real enough... I like the word though.) Yes, as a former TSA screener operating out of Texas, I have a few interesting gun stories... at least they were interesting to me at the time. Most of them stem from people with CHLs who FORGOT they brought their pistols with them (all of them women) and decided to check their carry-on with the pistol in the bag... usually loaded.

But when people did check their firearms properly, they did get the red carpet treatment. Part of the reason for this is the mentality that they are wannabe cops. Some actually call themselves "federal agents." It's sick and stupid but also quite true.

Personally, I have always felt that carrying the gear with you was the best way to go, but this is giving me cause to reconsider.

As for the security of your things, I still can't say that I have ever witnessed a condition which enabled people to steal things so easily as described in the article. At my airport, there were eyes pretty much everywhere and co-workers were likely to snitch on one another. (Proof positive that they aren't cops right?)

But with that said, there was a huge bust as my airport that occurred while I was there which involved baggage handlers. They were stealing tool boxes, golf clubs and rummaging through TSA screened luggage after the TSA passed them on. So if the airline says "don't look at us, look to the TSA" that's not the full truth of the matter.

I'm not here to defend the TSA or its screeners, but I would like to remind people that the TSA isn't a single hive mind of trained professionals. They are a bunch of people from different walks of life but most of which are the same [types] of people who might serve you at a burger restaurant. And the rule for dealing with restaurant people is pretty much the same as dealing with the TSA -- treat them with respect and kindness as you are being served or else you could end up with results you don't care for. But when the service is done, feel free to express your opinions and views.

Why doesn't the American Media Corporation....

[sgt_doom]

...which really is the sole source of what passes for MainStreamMedia in the US, ever report that the organization which vets, or does the background checks for the TSA, is Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater USA??? Never, never will they ever report that very crucial fact, which may be why over 55 sky marshals (the doods with the guns aboard the jetliners) have been fired, and/or convicted and jailed for everything from human trafficking, to drug smuggling, rape, etc., etc.? Blackwater OK's the crooks, so the TSA is full of crooks.

Re:In other news

[bussdriver]

Died of old age?
Millions of americans haven't died for their rights. WW2 and the civil war didn't even come close.

Perhaps you were thinking of the millions America has actually killed to build and maintain its empire? Or the greater numbers of indirect killings? The two recent wars this last decade killed over a million; unsurprisingly, we don't keep count... and with poor records its difficult to prove it all (yet the number proven is still really high and the estimates have been over a million for many years now.)

Tequila

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not so much an outrage of the theft of items from baggage, it happens from time to time and sometimes it's the handlers. It's clearly wrong and clearly theft.

What's really interesting is all the stuff being confiscated, like this politician's bottle of tequila. OK, he shouldn't have brought it on board the plane, but what's really telling is that they take it and noone knows what happens with it afterwards. Sure they will have plenty of pictures of the cheap stuff getting destroyed. But who's going to miss the small percentage actual good stuff that gets taken home and sold/given/traded with friends or acquaintances?