The Daily Caller

The Daily Caller
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TSA ‘bad apples’ steal thousands from baggage of passengers

10:04 PM 02/16/2011
Steven Nelson
Associate Editor

Two agents working for the Transportation Security Administration have been arrested after stealing from passengers at New York’s JFK airport.

The New York Daily News reports that Davon Webb and Persad Coumar were ratted out by a colleague. Both have worked for the TSA for over five years.

The theft that doomed the two involved pocketing $40,000 from a passenger’s bag. After being interrogated they confessed to stealing as much as $160,000 from passengers, selecting victims’ bags at random.

A representative of the TSA told the Daily News that the agency’s 50,000 employees should not be stigmatized by the “disgraceful actions of a few.”

The “few” bad apples include Michael Arato, a Newark TSA supervisor who pleaded guilty on Monday to stealing thousands of dollars from passengers at the New Jersey airport.

Arato partnered with a subordinate TSA agent to conduct the thefts. The two agents stole tens of thousands of dollars from passengers while either subjecting them to additional screening or while screening their bags.

Yet another TSA employee was arrested on January 27 in Memphis, Tennessee for attempting to steal a passenger’s laptop from a screening area.

Tags: Transportation Security Administration

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  • jdkchem

    A few bad apples? The whole barrel is rotten.

  • stvcar1

    I had medical equipment stolen from me by the TSAs in Kansas City, which is run by a contractor. They at least had the courtesy of leaving a note that they had gone through my bag. Of course they refused to replace or reimburse me for the lost insulin injection equipment. It didn’t cost them anything to turn me away, but I re-directed a 400 room convention to St. Louis. Sorry KC, but it ticked me off. We may come back in 2012.

  • GoneDaddyGone

    Think it’s bad now? Wait until they unionize. Not only will they continue to steal, they will not be fired when/if they are caught. Teachers union on steroids. I remember thinking when they started rifling through our luggage that the only thing they would accomplish is casting doubt as to whom actually removed your items. The TSA or the baggage handlers..

  • UncleDon

    where to begin? First of all, who leaves that much cash in their luggage when going through “security”? Second:Davon Webb and Persad Couma? Great, black felons and Islamic Terrorists have teamed up.
    Third: “A representative of the TSA told the Daily News that the agency’s 50,000 employees should not be stigmatized by the “disgraceful actions of a few.” Of course the representative is a convicted felon himself. This isn’t a few “bad apples” every one of them is a criminal; otherwise they would have gotten a real job.

    • leilani

      Where to begin is right!

      ) You asked: “First of all, who leaves that much cash in their luggage when going through “security”?

      People who have to pay cash for long cab rides and tip lotsa porters when they land, maybe?

      2) You asked: “Davon Webb and Persad Couma? Great, black felons and Islamic Terrorists have teamed up?”

      Holy cow! How the heck did you glean the massive trove of information out of just their first and last names which let you draw any conclusions at all about both their races, national origins, religions & criminal records let alone make a definitive determination about them?

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  • leiqiong

    It’s funny how we adopt words and adapt our lexicon to the times. This is a very useful slant on things.
    http://www.sunglasses-club.com

  • Raycheetah

    Even the “random” searches of checked luggage amount to warrantless violations of the 4th Amendment, “authorized” by legislators ignorant of the limits of gov’t power. =’[.]‘=

  • philm1

    I knew the TSA was going to be bad news when the lady who cleaned our hotel rooms at Fort Eustis (and could barely speak english) announced she was leaving to take a security screening job with the TSA.

    http://www.halfuhmind.com

  • leilani

    Ya gotta watch ‘em like hawks. One of ‘em palmed a small zippered leather notebook (which looked like a wallet) out of the tray before I could get up to it to get my stuff out. I realized it was gone, looked around intently & noticed that it had somehow sprouted legs & migrated to a back table where other TSAgents were sitting about 5 yards away.

    I refused to leave until I got it back, & he eventually returned it (after insisting for ten minutes it was his). They obviously work this particular scam in pairs. The one working ahead of the screen (and looking for promising goodies as they are put into into the tray) holds you back while your tray is going through, the guy at the other end does his part & they’re all very well practiced at snatching stuff quickly.

    You really have to wonder where TSA is recruiting for these positions. San Quentin? It certainly doesn’t engender a lot of confidence that the Federal Government is doing everything it can to keep us safe from the bad guys when they’re hiring brazen predators – crooks who have absolutely no fear whatsoever that their Agency supervisors will rebuke them in any way at all for their criminality – to man the front lines.