Off-Duty Police Officer Steals iPad From TSA Checkpoint 178
SpaceCadetTrav writes "A recent arrest report shows that an off-duty police officer from Fullerton, CA was arrested on felony grand theft charges for stealing an iPad at a TSA checkpoint in the Miami International Airport. The theft was captured on video surveillance last month and the officer was tracked down just before boarding her plane."
Re:wow (Score:5, Informative)
On balance, good job, TSA. You've caught your first criminal in what, a decade? Congrats.
Premature celebration. The TSA didn't even catch her. It was the Miami PD.
Another day, another airport, another crime... (Score:5, Informative)
http://travelunderground.org/index.php?threads/list-of-tsa-crime-stories-since-december-2010-part-1.127/ [travelunderground.org]
http://travelunderground.org/index.php?threads/list-of-tsa-crime-stories-since-december-2010-part-2.128/ [travelunderground.org]
Granted this one wasn't actually committed by a TSO but as was mentioned above, airport security checkpoints are prime locations for theft because many seem (or are) deliberately designed to separate you from your belongings.
Tip: You are NOT required to use a TSA-friendly lock to lock your carry-on bag. Keep your valuables inside your bag as it goes through the X-ray and lock it with a secure, TSA-unfriendly lock. If you want to take your laptop out as they insist you have to (many have said they've left the laptop in the bag and the TSA troglodytes haven't said anything about it), lock it to your bag handle with a Kensington locking cable. These steps will help ensure that you're there to watch them if they claim to need to look through your belongings. It also helps prevent them from trying to force you into a private room for a gropedown by picking your bags up and walking off with them.
And yeah, this is a shameless plug, but the site in my sig is a good resource for tracking TSA civil-rights abuses and coordinating political action to fight back against them. There's good advice to be had for putting TSOs in their place at the checkpoint too.