Thieves Stealing America @ JFK: 200 !!! Thefts Daily

Holyoop:!

CBS 2 New York (26 Mar 2012): Exclusive: The Stunning JFK Airport Baggage Scandal; 200 Thefts Per Day

The article suggests the airlines are aware of what's going on but report the bags as "lost in transit" so they don't have to 'fess up to what's going on.

 

Don't fly JFK. Actually, don't fly.

 

Let the finger pointing begin!

 

It couldn't possibly be those who are always held to the highest standards.

 

Gee, I'm shocked, shocked, I say!

 

My daughter, the business traveler, was ripped off twice at LaGuardia. The count so far: 1 flat iron, 2 handbags and cheap jewelry that looked expensive. Because she didn't unpack immediately upon arriving home she missed the 24 hour window of opportunity to file a complaint with United Airlines. Maybe instead of the "trusted traveler" program the TSA should start a "trusted employee" program.

 

I'd rather see them (by way of external mandate, since we know they won't do it on their own) institute harsh punishments for CNANOs (clerks-not-agents-not-officers) caught stealing, and measures to monitor and enforce employee compliance. As TSA is a government organization, the assumption is that their employed clerks ARE, or at least should be, trusted.

If we treat them like they are trusted, implementing policies that no trustworthy person would ever have trouble following, then trustworthiness would follow by necessity. Even if it simply meant that all the untrustworthy clerks were in prison.

 

200 thefts a day? A day?? I really am shocked.

200 X 365 = 73,000 complaints a year.

 

This being a leap year, we get 200 bonus thefts, for a grand total of 73,200.

 

I favor roadside chain gangs picking up trash and cutting weeds. A new model of TSA uniform mostly like the current version but with vertical strips. Nothing like some hard labor to get a persons attention.

 

Just imagine how many more are actually out there. JFK can't be the only place where this is going on.

 

Agreed. I tried to make a post about JFK not being an anomaly, but it might not have posted.

 

It's always been my position that none of these events are anomalies; it's rampant all over the country and has been exacerbated by TSA rules of not allowing checked bags to be locked.

 

Feh. Soft duty. Stick 'em in a granite quarry and work them like Pharaoh worked the Jews.

 

ABC New York ran a story in late 2010 citing over 2,000 thefts at LGA that occurred at the checkpoint.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=7879976&pid=7879644

This story was months before the thefts in 2011 at LGA, JFK and EWR but no one seems to care except the victims. The lack of accountability by government is as stunning as the public's stupidity in continuing to support the airline industry.

 

And let's not forget that the TSA has been quietly paying off thousands of people to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars for theft (I should say We the People have been paying them off):

TSA receiving fewer theft claims, rejecting more
http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/TSA-receiving-fewer-theft-claims-rejecting-more-122846494.html

 

The individual bad apple baggage handlers no longer have to risk getting caught searching through multiple bags. They just get a job with the TSA and get to look through every bag and pick the ones that are high reward, or leave inappropriate notes for pax depending on their mood. Thieves, perverts and morons.

 

We tried doing a FOIA years ago on bag thefts, but got smacked down. It would be interesting to do a FOIA from say, 1999 to present just to see what those numbers look like. I'm sure we would be appalled.

When I was flying my policy was to never check bags. I'm a good packer.

 

Same here. I took inordinate pride in my ability to pack a regulation-size -- or smaller -- carry-on (not those bags that people pretend are regulation-size, but that are too big and that they then stuff into the overhead taking up way more room than they should, thus preventing us responsible people from being able to stow our bags), no matter how long a trip I was taking -- even, say, a month in Europe -- and still looking well dressed and put together, with not a single pair of jeans or a T-shirt or (ugh) shorts in the whole shebang.

 

I do that too but then there's the in-borad-daylight "I deem this to be prohibited item and require you to voluntarily surrender it" part.