All iPads TSA Agents Like to Steal iPads

It seems the TSA has a problem with sticky-fingered agents who like to swipe Apple products, particularly iPads. Case in point: An agent at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport is the latest to be charged with stealing travelers’ iPads. It’s but one example of iPad pilferage by some of our nation’s “security” officials.

TSA baggage screener Sean Henry reportedly was caught leaving the airport with two iPads after a joint TSA and Port Authority sting, according to ABC News. Officials used the iPad’s own GPS tracking mechanism to keep tabs on the tablet and pinpoint the thief.

Other instances of note: In September, a TSA agent in Florida was caught pilfering an iPad left at a security checkpoint. In July, a Continental Airlines employee caught a TSA worker trying to take an iPad by stashing it in his pants. Not smooth, bro. He was alleged to have sold around $50,000 of stolen gear on Craigslist. And a TSA screener at Dallas-Fort Worth International was arrested in January and found with seven Apple tablets in his possession. One for each day of the week, perhaps?

In the most brazen example, more ambitious thieves (believed to be airport employees, but not necessarily TSA employees) swiped two entire pallets of iPads at JFK Airport — 3,600 in all, worth $1.5 million.

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urkel said:

.001% of cops are bad. Therefore, Cops are all bad.

This is sensationalistic writing meant to drive traffic. The fact that its still being linked only goes to show how catering to a specific type of reader pays off because some people just want to be angry.

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Julien said:

Please share the statistics you evaluated to prove otherwise.

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ZZ Bottom said:

I used to work as a TSA officer. I would have never considered stealing someone's belongings. However I did work with a couple of folks lacking ethics. My point is that its not fair to condemn them all.

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A convicted TSA security officer says he was part of a "culture" of indifference that allowed corrupt employees to prey on passengers' luggage and personal belongings with impunity, thanks to lax oversight and tip-offs from TSA colleagues.

"It was very commonplace, very," said Pythias Brown, a former TSA officer at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey who admits he stole more than $800,000 worth of items from luggage and security checkpoints over a four-year period.

"It was very convenient to steal," he said.

Speaking publicly for the first time after being released from prison, Brown told ABC News his four-year-long crime spree came to an end only because he tried to sell a camera he stole from the luggage of a CNN producer on E-bay but forgot to remove all of the news networks' identifying stickers.

"It became so easy, I got complacent," Brown said.

Brown is one of almost 400 TSA officers who have been fired for stealing from passengers in the past decade. According to the TSA, 381 TSA officers have been fired for theft between 2003 and 2012, including 11 so far in this year.

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"It was so easy," said Brown, "I walked right out of the checkpoint with a Nintendo Wii in my hand. Nobody said a word."

He said he soon learned how to read the X-ray scans to find the most valuable items to steal.

"I could tell whether it was cameras or laptops or portable cameras or whatever kind of electronic was in the bag," Brown said.

At the time of his arrest, Brown was offering for sale some 80 cameras, video games and computers on his personal eBay page.

"It was like being on drugs, it was," he told ABC News. "I was like, 'What am I doing?' but the next day I was right back at it."

Brown described one instance when he got a tip off about complaints from passengers about thefts.

"One gentleman that used to work in the office one day came to me and said, 'They were talking about you in the office. Be careful.' I said, 'Okay.'"

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