iPad Stolen By a TSA Agent? There's an App for That
Are some of the men and women sworn to protect your life while you fly the friendly skies rifling through your bags for goodies to compensate themselves for the effort? According to recent reports, each year there are hundreds of incidents where TSA agents have been caught with their hands in the duffel bag.
According to former TSA agent Pythias Brown, who was caught having stolen over $800,000 worth of items from passengers bags, it happens more often than most of us would believe.
Brown, jailed in 2009 after being caught trying to hock a stolen camera taken from no less than CNN on eBay, was recently released, and wants to help prevent future crimes by speaking out about lax rules to protect passengers' precious cargo. “I want to give back", said Brown, "To help ... help people understand you have to be very careful when you have your items in your bag.”
According to Brown, many agents have a sense of entitlement for a variety of reasons. “They aren’t paying me, they’re treating me wrong. They’re doing this and they’re doing that. And they just don’t care” were reasons Brown says he heard from his fellow agents who were ripping air passengers off.
And those on the take? No small number. According to the TSA, over 380 of their agents have been fired for theft over the last decade — 11 this year alone. With the dozens of instances Brown alone got sticky fingers, there are likely thousands of instances of iPads, iPods, laptops, cameras, jewelry and other items having disappeared into their "safety net".
Since the incidents have taken place for so long, with so many complaints coming in, has the TSA's management tightened up the reins over the last few years? ABC News decided to find out.
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