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TSA officers accused of stealing from passengers

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Re: TSA officers accused of stealing from passengers

#31

Post by hedora »

tim_sw wrote: post #13

This 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.

This story from SFO where the luggage handlers stole a gun from a retired police officer is pretty funny, though the article leaves out the part where there were numerous earlier complaints that were ignored:

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/3-sfo-luggage-handler...

An older example:

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/sfo-baggage-handle...

My new personal favorite SFO story:

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco/sfo-bagg...

United Airline luggage handlers at SFO decided to steal and resell weed from smugglers, then got robbed on camera at the airport while moving trashbags of it to their car. They got caught because they decided to report the robbery to the police!

Re: TSA officers accused of stealing from passengers

#32

Post by givemeethekeys »

midoridensha wrote: post #30
tim_sw wrote: post #13

This 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.

[flagged]

Most third world countries don't have a problem with mass shootings, but the US isn't the only first world country that has had mass shootings.

Re: TSA officers accused of stealing from passengers

#33

Post by hedora »

dataflow wrote: post #16
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 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.

Sure, but that's not a "water is wet" thing. It's not like only 1 in 1000 water molecules are wet.

Due 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.

Re: TSA officers accused of stealing from passengers

#35

Post by fortran77 »

I 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?

Re: TSA officers accused of stealing from passengers

#36

Post by systemvoltage »

blindriver wrote: post #34

TSA has caught 0 terrorists, meanwhile hundreds of TSA agents have been arrested. The entire thing is a complete disaster and failure.

It also made air travel painful and more expensive. The overhead of TSA is not insignificant.

Re: TSA officers accused of stealing from passengers

#37

Post by supportengineer »

hrokr wrote: post #17
downrightmike wrote: post #6

Do we still need the TSA? I mean, we beat terrorism right?

At 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 routi…

What’s their failure rate for detecting liquids over 3 oz?

Re: TSA officers accused of stealing from passengers

#38

Post by screamingninja »

blindriver wrote: post #34

TSA has caught 0 terrorists, meanwhile hundreds of TSA agents have been arrested. The entire thing is a complete disaster and failure.

> TSA has caught 0 terrorists

Where do you get these statistics? Is it a fact or a personal opinion?

Re: TSA officers accused of stealing from passengers

#39

Post by justinclift »

alphabettsy wrote: post #28
olalonde wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

What does this mean?

The 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.

Re: TSA officers accused of stealing from passengers

#40

Post by kibwen »

blindriver wrote: post #34

TSA has caught 0 terrorists, meanwhile hundreds of TSA agents have been arrested. The entire thing is a complete disaster and failure.

The 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.
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