Via Online Travel Review, a TSA screener at Newark was caught stealing a $50,000 camera from CNN and selling it online. He’s accused of stealing at least 100 items.
He had an outstanding reputation on eBay.
The TSA defends itself by pointing out that only 465 officers have been terminated for theft in the past five years (“0.4 percent of those employed by the agency”). But that just underscores how hard it is to reach the point of firing bad agents — this one was busted by the FBI who won the auction and recovered the CNN’s camera at the guy’s house, and yet the TSA employee is on paid leave.
That seems like a very high theft rate to me for government employees involved in law enforcement. Not something for them to be proud of.
I agree, 0.4% is 1 out of 250. And many TSA officers have roles that do not lend themselves to easy theft – the id checkers, the exit door watchers, and so on, so the rate for the ones who actually touch your bags must be a lot higher. Dreadful.
And notice that while 0.4% may have been terminated for theft, others may have stolen things but gotten terminated for much worse! 😛
Moral of the story: if you steal something expensive, don’t sell it online.
That is a shockingly large number. (One of them still has a video camera of mine – taken at Newark)