“In the latest apparent case of what have been hundreds of thefts by TSA officers of passenger belongings, an iPad left behind at a security checkpoint in the Orlando airport was tracked as it moved 30 miles to the home of the TSA officer last seen handling it,” Megan Chuchmach, Randy Kreider and Brian Ross report for ABC News.
“Confronted two weeks later by ABC News, the TSA officer, Andy Ramirez, at first denied having the missing iPad, but ultimately turned it over after blaming his wife for taking it from the airport,” Chuchmach, Kreider and Ross report. “The iPad was one of ten purposely left behind at TSA checkpoints at major airports with a history of theft by government screeners, as part of an ABC News investigation into the TSA’s ongoing problem with theft from passengers.”
Chuchmach, Kreider and Ross report, “‘This is the tip of the iceberg,’ said Rep. John Mica, R.-Florida, chair of the House Transportation Committee and a frequent critic of TSA senior management. ‘It is an outrage to the public, and actually to our aviation system.’ The TSA said Ramirez was no longer with the agency as of Wednesday afternoon. In a statement to ABC News, the agency said it has ‘a zero-tolerance policy for theft and terminates any employee who is determined to have stolen from a passenger.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Stealing an iPad: $499-$829. Blaming it on your wife: Priceless.
God love the USA! All self righteous until caught! hehehe
Hope it was worth it to him since he got nothing out of it, lost his job in these tough times and doubtful he can get another security job with this on his record. Do people even think before they do something so utterly stupid and self-defeating?
And problems with the wife!
When they think they are in positions of untouchable power, they can do almost anything. Remember the war criminal George W. Bush and his accomplice John Yoo. One gives the other a get out of jail free card and the other says “The lawyer said I could, what’s a fellow to do?”
Well, if the president of the United States can lie about his birth place, religion and reason why an embassador gets killed, he certainly is entitled to some of the good stuff also.
Yeah, except what quiviran posted actually happened and is documented. Your post is just the usual slab of unsubstantiated garbage barfed up by racist xenophobes.
Not supporting either comments but…..
What part of Ubermac’s comments did he mention race?
Are you sure you aren’t the racist or do you just think everyone is?
I by no means think everyone is racist.
However, the ‘foreign/other’ undertones of all the birther crap are offensive and tiresome.
I will accept that perhaps I unfairly made the assumption that Ubermac’s birther crap was similarly motivated.
I can’t believe you actually typed that. Do you blush when you do stuff like that?
quiviran not the only stupid commenter on Macworld.
Everything lost for stealing an iPad…
If it had been a Galaxy Tab, I wonder if it would still be at the airport? 😉
What did you expect from people who would steal your shampoo? Did anyone think they would not go after even more valuable things?
Was that Christmas light on the Garage?
Just another reason to boycott the airlines. When their business is failing, they will the the government, in no uncertain terms, to get those TSA goons out of the airports.
The TSA, Thank you Dan Young (R) AK (AKA MR. PORK) for sponsoring this liberty destroying train-wreck of a money grab post 911. (TSA) Which one of your campaign contributors will get the countract when your bagger-breatheren privatize it and make it even worse?
Fun Fact: Congressman Young has been included in the annual listing of the most corrupt members of Congress compiled by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in 2007, 2008 and 2009 reports on Congressional corruption for abusing his position to benefit family and friends, and for steering millions of dollars in earmarks to corporations in exchange for contributions to his campaign committee and political action committee.
When John McCain asked Young to give up money earmarked for Alaska to help the rebuilding effort from Hurricane Katrina, Young replied that Katrina victims “can kiss my ear!”
You may remember him as the father of the “bridge to Nowhere”. He is the second most senior Republican in congress.
Sounds like a jerk but repubs don’t have a corner on this behavior. Almost every one of them look at these offices as lifetime employment.
Truth, he’s Don, not Dan.
He’s typical. They’re all a bunch of dicks.
The Canadian security people (CATSA) are just as bad which should surprise nobody -they look to me to be demographically more likely to be involved in crime and terror than the passengers they molest-oops I’m profiling again
In Israel, under constant threat of terrorist attacks, there are no TSA style vigilantes. Another boondoggle, taking away American freedom sponsored by the Republican party. I wonder whatever happened to old Iron Jaw Tom Ridge anyway.
Can’t argue that it was sponsored by the Republicans, but can you explain why the Democrats did nothing to curb it when they controlled both houses of Congress?
Fear-mongering. All politicians feared backlash from the public at the time… A public that usually has knee-jerk reactions to events and situations.
Can you imagine someone not voting for the “PATRIOT” Act during that time?
He thought it was covered under, “Don’t ask. Don’t tell.”
“In a statement to ABC News, the agency said it has ‘a zero-tolerance policy for theft…”
But sexual touching toddlers, grandma and hot chicks is OK.
What is this country turning into?
A horrible Saturday Night Live skit.
And don’t expect EITHER of the political parties to come to the rescue.
It’s corruption and puppeteering by our Corporate Oligarchy RATS every which way around. It’s DESPERATION while the ship is sinking into Neo-Feudalism, just in time for the last Dark Age. Well done gentlemen and ladies.
A person would very likely be charged with littering if they purposefully left behind an android phablet.
This is NOT just an issue about an iPad.
The fact is that the TSA scoundrels, by the HUNDREDS, are being caught stealing ANYTHING THEY CAN GET THEIR HANDS ON. And the airlines don’t give a rat’s.
IOW: FLYERS BEWARE! There aren’t only terrorists endangering your welfare when you fly. The people PAID to protect you are screwing you over as well.
Decay and degeneration.
I like how the TSA deny that theft(and presumably any other crimes) is a major widespread problem, because they have sacked so few of their officers!!
Logic worthy of Kafka
He blamed his wife?!? Wow, that’s cold!!!
Why the heck doesn’t the TSA Officers get better paid.
If i had such a low salary, i would also steal.
Siegmund Fraudlein
this low class mexican used his innocent wife as a guinea pig, LOOL