Woman Says TSA Agent Stole Jewels At Logan Airport

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/10/...-agent-stole-jewels-at-logan-airport/#respond

BOSTON (CBS) – Terri Ivester was on her way to a family christening in Chicago when she ran into a snag at the security checkpoint at Logan Airport.
Terri Ivester says, “The TSA agent holds my backpack up, and um, says there’s a water bottle in this backpack, I’m going to have to take that.”
That’s when Ivester says the agent left the area with her bag.
George Nacara, who is head of the TSA at Logan, tells the I-Team that passengers have the right to stay with their bags.
Ivester says she continued through the security checkpoint and she never gave it another thought until she got dressed for the christening.
“I’m ready to put on my jewelry and I can’t find it,” she says.
She realized she was missing four pieces including a single strand of pearls and a double strand bracelet totaling $3,700.
“It had gone through the scanner, I think they saw the jewels and took them,” says Ivester.
The Transportation Security Administration recently revealed that 382 of its agents have been fired for theft in the past ten years.
According to Nacara, six TSA agents have been fired from Logan out of the thousands hired. He says Logan’s high-tech security camera system closely monitors checkpoints and is often used to resolve cases of theft.
But there is a catch. The tapes are only saved for 30 days and Ivester says she lost time initially filing her complaint with police. By the time she made her claim with TSA it was too late.
The I-Team also analyzed thousands of reports of stolen items nationwide, laptops, watches, currency and jewelry. Since 2011 – more than $60,000 worth of claims were filed in Boston. TSA reimbursed less than $3,000.
Not surprising to Nacara, who says closed circuit cameras often reveal items are stolen by other passengers.
Still the Airline Passenger Rights Association warns travelers a series of recent TSA firings means there’s plenty of reason for concern.
The TSA’s advice: While they are watching you with your cameras, you should keep a close eye on your belongings.

 

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A TSA agent stole a woman’s jewelry? Nah, impossible. Never happens!​

As CBS News reports:​

Terri Ivester was on her way to a family christening in Chicago when she ran into a snag at the security checkpoint at Logan Airport.​

Terri Ivester says, “The TSA agent holds my backpack up, and um, says there’s a water bottle in this backpack, I’m going to have to take that.”​

That’s when Ivester says the agent left the area with her bag.
Next thing you know, Ivester is at her destination, getting dressed for the christening. She looks for her jewelry. It’s gone.

She realized she was missing four pieces including a single strand of pearls and a double strand bracelet totaling $3,700.​

The TSA, of course, has its usual handy advice: “you should keep a close eye on your belongings.” Never mind that we have thousands of accounts from passengers who’ve been hauled aside and forbidden from keeping an eye on their belongings, whose belongings have been hidden from them, or outright taken away, as happened here with Terri Ivester. Or that 382 TSA agents have been fired for theft — and that’s only the ones we’ve found out about. Or that the TSA is rejecting more and more theft claims all the time. Yeah, never mind pesky little facts like that.
It’s your fault, Passenger, for not “keeping a close eye on your belongings.”
(Photo: Flickr Creative Commons/Mauro Cateb)

 

UK Daily Mail: My jewellery was snatched by a TSA worker and they deleted the surveillance footage when I complained, claims passenger

A Boston woman claims TSA agents walked off with thousands of dollars’ worth of jewellery from her luggage, amid a growing number of similar cases spanning the U.S. Terri Ivester says it was an agent at Logan International Airport who stopped her at a security checkpoint took the bag, and returned it with the jewellery missing ... Adding to her outrage, she says the TSA has notified her that any surveillance footage capturing her trip has since been erased. While in the past security cameras have been used to capture theft, most recently in the newsat New Jersey's Newark airport, the TSA says they save the footage for only 30 days.​

 

Becky Akers @ LRC Blog: Naturally, the Thieves Are the Lowest of Lying Cowards, Too

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Naturally, this is all the victim’s fault — and yours if you flew out of Logan that day, according to the TSA. One of its propagandists announced that “passengers have the right to stay with their bags,” while the agency admonished Ms. Ivester and the rest of us serfs “…you should keep a close eye on your belongings.” (Wanna bet the lady would be languishing in a cage now had she attempted to follow the thief out of the checkpoint? Or had she even voiced a bit of doubt: “Hey, where are you going with my bag?”) But then Goebbels increases the insult by explaining why the TSA has paid a mere $3000 towards $60,000-worth of claims filed at the airport since last year: “…closed circuit cameras often reveal items are stolen by other passengers.”​

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When will we rise against these thieves, perverts, pedophiles and liars and drive them from our shores?​

 

Would that such agents left the area in bags.

 

Would like input from Rugape on this - can you follow a TSA employee who walks away with your bag or can't you? If you cannot, then how am I supposed to "keep an eye" on my possessions? I cannot be two place at one time. Which instructions am I supposed to follow- "don't move" or "always watch your bags?"

 

Rugape won't be able to help. Revealing the Stupid Secret TSA SOP would endanger the earning potential of all TSA Fluffers.

 

This entire situation is so far out of control it boggles the mind.
With all of the document cases of screener theft, a reasonable person would expect that the agency would have become more diligent and cahnged it rules to prevent passengers from being separated from their bags.
I keep waiting to wake up and find I just had a bad dream.

 

Ok here goes, I was transiting ORD-DTW on 26 April had to go through ( American Terminal ) check point 6 to get to my gate. I opted out and put my carry on on the belt. went through the scanner and picked up my carry on.. never thought anything was wrong as I had all my cash$ 600.00 and TC's $1800.00 in a sealed white envelope inserted in my leather travel folio bound with 4 big rubber bands. As I had 4 hrs till my flight I didn't look in my carry on until approx 45 min before the flight to retrieve my BP. The BP was in the folio not the envelope... the tsa thug got my money at the check point. It was my fault I didn't keep my bag in view , as the tsa thug blocked my view as did the moat hog who made me wait to go through the metal scanner. A very well rehearsed team ! At the gate I approached a chicago cop, and told him what happened . He advised me to go to the airport police station and file a complaint, also that I would be missing my flight.. So I got victimized by the tas and the chicago cops plus the american express travelers checks investigation people in India... it took almost 3 months to get my refund from American express ( thats another story )....... At least I had a very nice trip until I got back to wonderful AMERIKA..

 

mikew68 that's a horrible story, and sadly exactly what we've come to expect from Amerika's finest.

Having been in a similar situation, but without the loss of cash, I simply don't understand how we're supposed to keep an eye on our belongings and simultaneously obey their every whim. It's as if the checkpoint is set up specifically to allow them to pilfer.

 

I direct your attention to post 7.

What kind of organization would not have identified the security flaws in TSA checpoints by now unless they didn't want to find anything?

Can you say "setup"?

 

We are nothing but sitting ducks at the airport. Radiated, groped (or both), robbed, swabbed, questioned and herded like cattle through the system. And WE, the people radiated, groped, swabbed, questioned and herded like cattle, PAY to have this done to us. And all because we want to fly on an airplane. I truly believe the only thing that will stop this nonsense is a boycott of the airlines and unfortunately I don't see that happening in my lifetime.

 

The boycott is already happen for people who are taking the train, the bus, driving or just staying home. It doesn't have to be done by all or even a majority of (former) air passengers. Airlines operate on very small profit margins (often loses); every bit of income lost hurts.

 

I work at a small airport, our checkpoints (by design) keep you where you can watch your items during the entire process (except when your items are inside the xray, of course). I have not seen anyone just take a bag and walk away from a passenger to clear it (and if I did, I would have words with them). Personally, I never take a bag and begin to screen it until the passenger is right there, even if they tell me to go ahead. I am unable to speak for what goes on at other checkpoints, but the spokeperson is correct, you are supposed to be allowed to keep an eye on your items at all times. If you are chosen for additional screening, then the TSO is supposed to retrieve your items and bring them with you for the additional screening. I understand that this is sometimes a longer process at the larger airports where staffing is not always optimal, but that is the process.

 

Yeah.. what a crock ! your tsa thrives on instilling FEAR in the flying public...

 

Ok, then advise me please on what I should do if the TSA who is checking my bags isn't following the rules and tells me they are taking my bag for further searching and to stay where I am. What is my next move?

 

At that point I'd call an officer (a real one, the police kind) to assist. At that point there's a strong disincentive for the clerk to steal anything from the bag.

Also, I've heard it helps to lock carry-on bags with TSA-unfriendly (and preferably anti-cut/hardened) locks so they can't steal anything inside the bag. ThinkGeek actually has an entire BAG that's hardened against cutting as an anti-theft measure. Might help to use something like that as a carry-on bag.

 

Seems a small airport would be more constrained for room than a large airport. From my obsevations the problem lies in the process and a clear lack of concern by TSA on security of travelers belongings. As long as TSA refuses to admit it has an internal security problem this problem will remain. It is truly sad that the public has more to fear from TSA than the terrorist.

 

I've told this story before: I also had a bag taken out of my sight, at TUC, also a small airport. This screener was a very nice young man who was trying to make my experience a more pleasant one (I declined the offer and made clear that there was nothing pleasant about it). There was something dense in my backpack that the x-ray couldn't see through. He started taking things out of my bag and putting them in a tub, and then took the tub and my half-unpacked backpack back to the x-ray. I could see where he was, but I was unable to see my things behind the x-ray station. This was troubling because I had packed up everything -- purse, jewelry, electronics -- in my backpack and locked it, and now many of those things were loose in the tub. He did have it away from me long enough to swipe a number of things. I should have protested but my attention was spread too thin -- I was managing my kids, then 5 and 1.5, and was troubled that my husband was at the same time getting groped for no reason (random on the WTMD, it seemed). This also bothered me: as the guy brought back my backpack, the few important things I had in an insecure side pocket for quick access -- boarding passes, passports for ID, credit card to pay for the checked bags -- had gotten joggled as he put my backpack through the x-ray and were hanging out, about to fall on the floor, which I wouldn't have let happened if I had been closely monitoring the process.

In my case nothing was stolen, and I didn't suspect this guy of stealing, though I did make a point of checking all of my valuables. This guy wasn't a criminal or a slacker and was, I think, trying to speed along the process, rather than having me sit there with my two squirmy kids while went through every last thing in my bag. But he's a good example of how little emphasis there must be on the "keep your belongings in your sight" policy.

 

It's clear that the only "security" any TSA employee is interested in is "securing" themselves a paycheck - whether the one they get from the TSA, or the "extra" they can tack on from stealing things from passengers.

Otherwise, we'd be hearing a lot more about TSA employees turning each other in for theft. Instead, we get reports of TSA employees paying each other off to not report thefts (Arato and Pepper were supervisors, remember - all of their subordinates and co-workers remain suspect, no matter which airport they're "working" at.)

TSA employee == soulless, unethical, dishonorable waste of skin.