No wonder they like to grope and search luggage.
While most Transportation Security Administration employees are busy groping people or taking naked pictures of them, the cops say one of those employees was putting fliers’ electronics down his pants.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office says 30-year-old Nelson Santiago stole around $50,000 worth of electronics over the past six months from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport’s Terminal 1.
Santiago — a TSA officer since 2009 — was caught earlier this week by a Continental Airlines employee taking an iPad out of someone’s luggage and stuffing it into his pants, the cops say.
After being arrested Monday on two counts of grand theft, police say Santiago admitted to stealing computers, GPS devices, video cameras, and other electronic merchandise from luggage he was supposed to be screening.
The cops say Santiago would immediately take pictures of his new goods and upload the photos online to sell the stuff.
Santiago would typically sell the stolen goods to people before his shift was even over, police say.
BSO detectives estimate that Santiago’s haul totaled $50,000 over the past six months.
The cops are looking for people whose stuff has been stolen, although they say the chances of getting the stuff back are slim.
Santiago was released from jail on bond, although police say more charges against him are pending.
According to police, Santiago no longer works with the TSA.
The TSA Thief
The Travel Underground has put together a list of TSA crimes and abuses. Take your blood pressure meds before you read them.
Here’s a few samples:
Not So Private Parts
Texas Public Utility Commission chairman Barry Smitherman: “You’re punishing me for opting out, aren’t you?”
TSA agent: “Yes, we are.”
by Kashmir Hill, Forbes, June 16, 2011, Tech
http://blogs.forbes.com/kashmirhill/2011/06/16/quote-of-the-day-after-texas-state-official-left-sore-from-a-tsa-patdown/
TSA Forces Cancer Survivor Flight Attendant to Pull Out Prosthetic Breast During Patdown
http://gizmodo.com/5694534/tsa-forces-cancer-survivor-flight-attendant-to-pull-out-prosthetic-breast-during-patdown
Lawsuit: Airport search indecent (with update below)
Posted: October 10, 2010 – 11:57pm
By Jim McBride
An Amarillo woman is suing the federal government for intentional infliction of emotional distress after Transportation Security Administration agents allegedly humiliated the woman when her breasts were publicly exposed during an “extended search” two years ago at a Corpus Christi airport.
The suit, filed earlier this year in Amarillo’s U.S. District Court, alleges the woman was singled out for “extended search procedures” while preparing to board an aircraft destined for Amarillo on May 29, 2008.
The Amarillo Globe-News has declined to identify the woman for privacy reasons.
“As the TSA agent was frisking plaintiff, the agent pulled the plaintiff’s blouse completely down, exposing plaintiffs’ breasts to everyone in the area,” the lawsuit said. “As would be expected, plaintiff was extremely embarrassed and humiliated.”
The suit said the woman filed an administrative claim against the TSA, but the agency never responded, sparking the lawsuit.
The suit also claims that other TSA employees continued to joke and laugh about the incident for an extended period of time. The woman was distraught over the incident and left the screening area so an acquaintance could console her, the suit said.
When the woman re-entered the boarding area, employees once again began joking about the matter, the suit said.
“One male TSA employee expressed to the plaintiff that he wished he would have been there when she came through the first time and that ‘he would just have to watch the video,'” the suit said.
The lawsuit claims, among other allegations, that federal employees were negligent and that employees intentionally caused the woman severe emotional distress by joking about the incident after the woman re-entered the airport screening area.
In court documents, government attorneys acknowledged that the woman went through secondary screening at a TSA checkpoint, but denied the suit’s claims.
The woman’s attorney, Jerry McLaughlin, said the woman, now a 23-year-old college student, believes TSA employees acted improperly after a female TSA agent pulled off the woman’s top during the screening.
“It was kind of a bad situation. They didn’t handle it correctly,” he said. “One of our major complaints is that even after it occurred, they started making jokes about it.”
Allison Sands, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said the office does not comment on pending litigation.
http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/2010-10-11/lawsuit-airport-search-indecentUPDATE: Woman whose breasts exposed in pat-down settles with TSA
. . . Murley claimed that a TSA agent pulled her blouse completely down, exposing her breasts to everyone in the area. Despite her embarrassment, the lawsuit claims that TSA employees in the area continued to joke and laugh about the incident for an extended period of time . . . the male TSA staffer said he was disappointed that he missed her blouse being yanked down, then said “he would just have to watch the video.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41060589/ns/travel-news/
http://news.lalate.com/2011/01/13/lynsie-murley-gets-tsa-settlement/
More TSA Abuses: Woman Beaten; 71-year-old man, 16-year-old cancer survivor groped, stripped
http://www.cogitamusblog.com/2010/10/more-tsa-abuses-woman-beaten-71-year-old-man-16-year-old-girl-groped-stripped.html
TSA officer Paul Yashou arrested on suspicion of taking $30,000 worth of items from suitcases at LAX
http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-tsa-luggage-thefts-20110624,0,1149811.story
TSA agent at Bush Intercontinental Airport has been arrested amid accusations of theft
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8195687
The TSA is saturated with bat-shit crazy, incompetent thugs. How far do they have to go, how many laws do they have to break, and how many outrageous abuses do they have to commit before the TSA is shut down and replaced with a disciplined, professional, competent agency that stops hiring criminals and knows how to profile for real terrorist threats?
Related posts:
- TSA Agents Grope Mentally Retarded Man, Confiscate Toy (sfcmac.wordpress.com)
- The TSA Adds Soiled Adult Diapers to the List of Threats (sfcmac.wordpress.com)
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