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TSA officers accused of stealing from passengers
- huntertwo 3y agoIn other news, water is wet.
- dataflow 3y agoReally? Is this common?
- JoshTriplett 3y agoIt's been standard guidance for travelers for a long time to not put cash in your checked luggage because it'll get stolen.
- petra303 3y agoThat’s carry on luggage, not checked luggage.
- dataflow 3y agoEr, these are wallets they're stealing from, not checked luggage?
- cute_boi 3y agoProbably, got my $400 stolen in Qatar TSA. No idea, what I can do there.
- corbezzoli 3y agoI think theft was more common before, but thankfully less so lately. Nothing ever went missing from my checked bags (so far), and I don’t travel in first world countries.
- miah_ 3y agoRecently there was a ring of United workers busted stealing pot from travelers bags in SF. https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/sfo-armed-robbery-uncovered-drug-smuggling-ring-18161928.php https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/sfo-armed-robbery-un...
- dataflow 3y agoThat's not TSA or carry-on luggage...
- hn_throwaway_99 3y agoThe unsurprising part to me is not that it's "common", but with over 50k TSA agents, I'd be shocked if some small percentage of them weren't thieves. If only one in a thousand is a thief, that's still 50 thieves.
- dataflow 3y agoSure, but that's not a "water is wet" thing. It's not like only 1 in 1000 water molecules are wet.
- hrokr 3y agoIf you have 1 bad officer but 999 who go along with it, you have 1000 bad officers. And remember, this is just one case. "Instead of making headlines with reform, though, the TSA has become better-known for stealing money from travelers. In September, news reports called out the case of TSA working with other agencies to seize $27,600 from a Texas man, apparently because he was traveling to Oregon where marijuana is legal in conflict with federal law; he was never charged with a crime. Last year, the Institute for Justice reported that TSA and its sister agencies at Homeland Security "seized over $2 billion in currency at airports" between 2000 and 2016." https://reason.com/2021/11/19/after-20-years-of-failure-kill-the-tsa/ https://reason.com/2021/11/19/after-20-years-of-failure-kill...
- dataflow 3y agoI don't get why every comment here is answering a different question than the one being asked. The question is "is it common for TSA agents to covertly steal from carry-on luggage", not "is the TSA bad" or "do TSA follow due process" or "is it risky to carry cash in checked luggage when traveling" or "is law enforcement stealing from people" or what have you.
- hedora 3y agoDue to the way surface tension works, many fewer than 1 in 1000 water molecules are wet. There’s a kids science experiment where you coat your hand in the right powder, dip it in water, and it comes out dry. I can’t find a link to it though.
- stonogo 3y agoYes.
- dataflow 3y agoAny links or anything? I don't recall hearing this any time in recent memory.
- stonogo 3y agohttps://www.travelstatsman.com/03082020/the-great-tsa-robbery/ https://www.travelstatsman.com/03082020/the-great-tsa-robber... https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=tsa%20theft&hl=en-US https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&ge... https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/recent-tsa-arrest-at-lax-continues-theft-trend/1901373/ https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/recent-tsa-arrest-a... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/beware-your-gadgets-at-risk-of-theft-from-tsa/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/beware-your-gadgets-at-risk-of-...
- dataflow 3y agoNone of those is the case of passengers' carry-ons being robbed as they go through security, AFAICT. They're stuff like lost-and-found wallets being stolen. And what you're posting is from several years ago (mostly from a decade ago). If anything you're making it clear the type of incident we were talking about doesn't seem to be common nowadays.
- stonogo 3y agoI posted examples from several years ago to overcome any possible recency bias. I also posted a Google Trends link with similar intent. The TSA deliberately does not break down where in the airport a given worker was caught stealing; given that they've fired an average of 25 officers per year for the past twenty years the idea that none of them were raiding carryons is ridiculous. It is going to be nearly impossible to convince you, I can tell. The next phase is "well just because it happens often doesn't mean it's common" and other goal-post-moving exercises. I don't really understand why you bothered asking questions if you believed you already had the answers. I'm also not sure why it's so important to you that the TSA be regarded as trustworthy despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Good luck with your future endeavors; I'm done playing.
- tim_sw 3y agoThis is more common than reported. I’ve lost a semi expensive present, and have heard anecdotal stories of people losing handbags, jewelry, higher end clothing/shoes. It seems to be more prevalent in the US/TSA than other first world countries.
- olalonde 3y ago[flagged]
- alphabettsy 3y agoWhat does this mean?
- justinclift 3y agoThe US (as a generalisation) seems to be pretty racist. The approaches they've tried for solving this seem to be making the racism problem far worse though, rather than solving it. Hopefully they figure it out and solve the problem in a good way in the near future, though I'm not holding my breath.
- flangola7 3y agoCurrently the federal judicial is happily undoing the last 50 years of societal improvement.
- olalonde 3y agoIt seems pretty straightforward. The TSA doesn't focus on competence when hiring, resulting in a less competent workforce. They have an entire department dedicated to prioritizing characteristics unrelated to competence, such as skin color, sex, etc.: https://www.tsa.gov/civil-rights-diversity-and-inclusion https://www.tsa.gov/civil-rights-diversity-and-inclusion. This is not the case of most countries and in fact, it's illegal in many places to do so.
- 3y ago
- jandrese 3y ago> Josue Gonzalez and Labarrius Williams are facing grand theft charges. > For the next six months, Gonzalez must pay $700 to the two victims involved and he must do 25 hours of community service and give up his airport security credentials. For reference, grand theft in Florida is when the property stolen exceeds $750 in value.
- downrightmike 3y agoDo we still need the TSA? I mean, we beat terrorism right?
- soupfordummies 3y agoWe never did
- hrokr 3y agoAt the time the TSA was hired the majority of workers had previously been airport security which is was low-skill/low-pay job. When Bush Jr established the TSA, those same people were federalized. Meaning Federal pay, benefits, retirement, etc for the same low skill level. They haven't improved much since then. The organization has essentially made Security Theater an event with audience participation. Yet they routinely miss threats -- like they have a 95% FAILURE rate at points. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/06/reassessing_air.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/06/reassessing_a... Incidentally, that post is fairly well known amongst the security minded as you see here. https://reason.com/2021/11/19/after-20-years-of-failure-kill-the-tsa/ https://reason.com/2021/11/19/after-20-years-of-failure-kill...
- supportengineer 3y agoWhat’s their failure rate for detecting liquids over 3 oz?
- civilitty 3y ago50:50 maybe. I made it through with a 10oz can of Zippo lighter fluid once. Didn’t realize it till I got home from the airport.
- andyjsong 3y agoThat sounds about right, I took a domestic flight from SFO to PSP this week. I had a full-sized tube of toothpaste going there, with no issues, and they took it away coming back.
- j16sdiz 3y agoNot sure if they are actually stealing, but opening passenger's baggage when they are absent is not a good way to gain trust, I guess.
- blindriver 3y agoTSA has caught 0 terrorists, meanwhile hundreds of TSA agents have been arrested. The entire thing is a complete disaster and failure.
- screamingninja 3y ago> TSA has caught 0 terrorists Where do you get these statistics? Is it a fact or a personal opinion?
- StanislavPetrov 3y agoThe TSA has been in existence for more than 20 years now. Can you find a single case where a terrorist has been convicted as a result of the actions of the TSA?
- bagels 3y agoCertainly the TSA would have really ramped up the PR about how useful they are if they had some evidence?
- llamaInSouth 3y agoActually, airport employees are told not to talk about incidents that happen... probably the same with TSA
- systemvoltage 3y agoIt also made air travel painful and more expensive. The overhead of TSA is not insignificant.
- kibwen 3y agoThe TSA is a welfare program for veterans. However, this is America, so we can't just give people money because something something socialism, so we have to give them pretend make-work.
- KennyBlanken 3y ago
- fortran77 3y agoI used to maintain a blog of arrests of TSA officers and baggage handlers. At its peak, there were on average 2 arrests/week for stealing from passengers. It’s actually gotten better (less theft) over the past few years. I no longer keep the blog, but it’s down to about 1 a month. I think the TSA has made us less safe. If there are so many people desperate for money, what’s stopping them from accepting a payment to get something through?
- flerovium 3y agoWhere is this—the record of the old ones?
- flangola7 3y agoLarge orgs are always the biggest thieves. Look at scale of wage violations vs robberies.
- bagels 3y agoWe're each individually much more likely to be victimized by TSA than helped. Obviously they generally aren't killing us though, so at least there's that.
- verve_rat 3y agoDid it get better? Was there less theft, or just fewer arrests?
- fragmede 3y agoWhy'd you stop? what were your sources? could it be automated?
- langsoul-com 3y agoNot crazy, imagine your stuck in a not high end job and constantly see expensive wares pass through your eyes. Not that much to get tempted and swipe them.
- tonymet 3y agoLow status, meager pay, moderate authority, high opportunity. Almost a guarantee that the theft rate is very high. Public awareness of this theft would be very damaging so there’s also a great pressure to cover it up. I’m guessing 75% of actual theft is marked as a “legitimate banned item”. I’ve had TSA agents claim high value items were not allowed so they could be stolen ( the encounter was outside the main security area with less concentrated camera coverage.). In other words if there are reports of ~ 100 thefts a year it’s likely 4x that amount.
- bagels 3y agoWhat kind of item?
- tonymet 3y agoexpensive cologne
- a_bonobo 3y ago>Low status, meager pay, moderate authority, high opportunity. But isn't that the same for other countries' airport security workers too?
- Const-me 3y agoIn Europe, income is generally more evenly distributed across various skills, professions, and sectors of the economy. IMO this makes society here much more pleasant. Personally, I wouldn’t be comfortable living in a society where people who grow, prepare, or serve food, educate children, or maintain the cleanliness of streets are on the brink of survival. Even ignoring empathy which is subjective, unhappy people rarely do a great job. The original article is a good example.
- tonymet 3y agoWho says they aren’t stealing?
- tonymet 3y ago
- Eumenes 3y agoHas anyone noticed that TSA employees are overwhelmingly obese? Recently flew out of JFK and I was beyond shocked that every.single.employee appeared to be over 300 pounds. They also scream at you, are indifferent to helping, etc. You can say the same thing about the DMV staff. I have not noticed this phenomenon in other countries. The federal government sure knows how to hire winners.