This is a sobering look into how easy it is for TSA security officers to steal our belongings. This former agent, Pythius Brown, spent 3 years in jail for stealing around $800,000 worth of other people's property over a 4 year period at the Newark New Jersey Airport. In the span of 10 years, around 400 TSA agents have been fired for theft. That's a heck of a lot of people. Brown worked behind the ticket counters, alone, screening baggage.
In spite of the fact that we are told not to put anything of value in our checked luggage, you would be surprised how many people still do.
Keep anything of value with you, and be hyper vigilant as you go through the security check point. When I am being screened, I always have an eye on my carry-on baggage, and I remove any metal that I might have on my body prior to going through the check point.
Sad that TSA is so careless in its screening of potential employees, but as Brown explains, it was just so easy he fell into it without much trouble.
Of course it's not just TSA, you also have flight attendants, and baggage handlers that can steal your belongings.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Flight Attendant Steals Man's i-Pad- Found Using "Find My -iPad" app
I always thought that you could trust your flight attendants, and that if anything was going to wind up stolen on a trip it would be before you boarded the plane. We've all heard the many horror stories about rampant theft by baggage handlers and TSA agents, so I was rather shocked when 43-year-old flight attendant Wendy Ronelle Dye was busted for stealing a Reno, Nevada man's iPad. She claims she intended to give it back, but that's not what police believe, since she had already put some personal info on the tablet.
I've never heard of Horizon Air (it belongs to Alaska Airlines), but Dye was a stewardess on a flight to Los Angeles when the victim left his iPad on the plane. According to Dye a passenger found it on a seat and handed it over to her. She told police that she had every intention of turning it in to Horizon Air officials, but forgot it in her personal bag. Yeah, right. We have one honest passenger and one thieving stewardess who denied, at first, that she even knew anything about a lost iPad.
You might wonder how they even discovered that Dye had the stolen property: the Apple App 'Find My iPad'. It comes with your iPad, and is easy to locate.
Go to Settings. Click on iCLoud, and switch on Find My iPad.
Then if it gets lost, all you have to do is log on to www.icloud.com and you will find all your information. Click on Find My i-Pad and it will pull up a map with the exact location (I just tried this and there was a map of where I live). If you click on devices, you also have the option of playing a sound, locking it, or wiping it clean.
Luckily, the man had downloaded the app a few days before his flight, so he was able to track her down in Oregon where she was arrested. Tablet and man will soon be reunited.
Dye has been charged with theft and has been suspended while the case is being investigated, although it seems pretty cut and dry to me and she should be fired.
When traveling it's very important to keep tabs on all your possessions, at all times. And thanks to Apple, it makes it easy to recover lost or stolen property.
Source: Daily Mail
I've never heard of Horizon Air (it belongs to Alaska Airlines), but Dye was a stewardess on a flight to Los Angeles when the victim left his iPad on the plane. According to Dye a passenger found it on a seat and handed it over to her. She told police that she had every intention of turning it in to Horizon Air officials, but forgot it in her personal bag. Yeah, right. We have one honest passenger and one thieving stewardess who denied, at first, that she even knew anything about a lost iPad.
You might wonder how they even discovered that Dye had the stolen property: the Apple App 'Find My iPad'. It comes with your iPad, and is easy to locate.
Go to Settings. Click on iCLoud, and switch on Find My iPad.
Then if it gets lost, all you have to do is log on to www.icloud.com and you will find all your information. Click on Find My i-Pad and it will pull up a map with the exact location (I just tried this and there was a map of where I live). If you click on devices, you also have the option of playing a sound, locking it, or wiping it clean.
Luckily, the man had downloaded the app a few days before his flight, so he was able to track her down in Oregon where she was arrested. Tablet and man will soon be reunited.
Dye has been charged with theft and has been suspended while the case is being investigated, although it seems pretty cut and dry to me and she should be fired.
When traveling it's very important to keep tabs on all your possessions, at all times. And thanks to Apple, it makes it easy to recover lost or stolen property.
Source: Daily Mail
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