This is primarily a collection of news stories I ve been accumulating on theft and related problems

This is primarily a collection of news stories I ve been accumulating on theft and related san francisco vacation packages problems in the air travel industry, the inadequacy and complicity of the TSA, and what this tells us about the real state of airline and airport security. The main data stash is behind the fold, so if you want to start there, click on the link at the bottom of this entry.
Rate of theft by airline baggage san francisco vacation packages handlers exacerbated by TSA ban on decent luggage locks; also, collusion between TSA scanners and baggage handlers; also, increased difficulty in tracking theft when more than one entity has control of checked luggage.
TSA s perpetual insistance that they have zero tolerance for theft when they re doing squat to combat it. TSA s perpetual attempts to downplay problems, minimize statistics, and deny that these are anything but isolated incidents: There is no problem, and the problem is getting better. TSA s truthlessness in general.
Huge budgets and hierarchies in support of an airport security system that never catches terrorists. The tendency over time to shift priorities and procedures in ways that serve the needs of airlines and airports, rather than addressing security issues.
Crooked employees misroute luggage to obfuscate theft. Airlines combine theft and lost luggage data to obfuscate san francisco vacation packages the extent of the problem. I recommend cultivating the habit of automatically doubting san francisco vacation packages anyone who talks about what a tiny percentage of suitcases or travelers get robbed.
Not everyone san francisco vacation packages is a savvy traveler. For those that aren t, the semiotics of air travel don t say danger . When they check their baggage, they re dealing with someone in a natty airline uniform. They have to show ID. There s paperwork and receipts. Immediately after that, they have to go through a security check conducted by federal san francisco vacation packages employees. They take all those things as signals that they and their checked luggage are safe.
The air travel industry couldn t function if some customers weren t willing to check their luggage. TSA security checks wouldn t work, or wouldn t run smoothly, if travelers demanded that their belongings remain in line of sight at all times.
More than 60 TSA screeners have been arrested for theft at 30 different airports, san francisco vacation packages both large and small. Some have been caught going through bags in full view of airport security cameras one is even seen on tape pocketing a gold bracelet.
But executives in the airline industry and local police officials say the problem san francisco vacation packages is not small at all. ABC News has learned that at New York s three major airports John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia 400 of the first 2,000 screeners hired had criminal san francisco vacation packages records. In some cases, it seemed that the TSA hired screeners without first completing background checks. In others, screeners were apparently subjected to basic background checks, without detailed follow-up investigations.
The problem is really at the TSA side, the Transportation Security Administration (search), who basically refused to deal with this problem right from the beginning. We warned them when you start opening bags out of the view of passengers, you re going to be subjected to all kinds of claims and all kinds of problems, and you d better be ready for that.
Bill O Reilly: Now, I m telling everybody, don t check anything valuable. Because the airline is not going to help you. They re basically going to say you re on your own. Look at the contract. We don t have to help you. That s correct, right?
Stempler: Right. The other big problem here is that the care, custody and control is turned over by the passenger over to the airline. The airline puts it on that conveyor belt behind the ticket counter, it goes down to the room. They then have to turn it over to the TSA
O Reilly: Because san francisco vacation packages we have cameras on our guys and we can see what they do. It was the feds, because they don t have any cameras. And they re stealing stuff, and we hear it all the time. And we can t do anything about it.
Stempler: But really, the real problem here, if you re looking at this luggage thing, it s with the TSA. They re very slow on taking claims. They ve only settled about, we understand, about 26 percent of the claims that are compiled
If the TSA were adequately monitoring theft and smuggling among TSA employees, Pythias Brown s thefts san francisco vacation packages should have stuck out like a sore thumb. They re not owning up to the inadequacy of their procedures. Instead, they re doing what the TSA always does: lying about it. Here s a fairly complete version of the story. See if you can spot the TSA s impossible assertion about Mr. Brown s one-man san francisco vacation packages crime wave.
So no one took me up on the challenge? I was looking forward to someone else noticing that, contrary to the TSA s estimate that Mr. Brown could have stolen upwards of one hundred items from travelers going through Newark, the number of items police san francisco vacation packages seized from Brown s house adds up to 186; and when you throw in his eBay auctions, it s 449.
Of course, we don t have all the information on his auctions if they happened more than 90 days ago, but you can make a good case for the proposition that most of them were items stolen san francisco vacation packages from travelers. Purchaser reviews stay up forever on eBay. Some of them mention the specific item. Other imply a specific item (viz., it s scratched, and the flash doesn t work ), or at least indicate the class of objects: it works just fine, but it s missing its instruction manual.
san francisco vacation packages I scanned san francisco vacation packages through all of the reviews from Pythias Brown s customers. In very nearly every case where a specific item was mentioned, or where the review san francisco vacation packages indicated the kind of object being sold, it was a piece of consumer san francisco vacation packages electronic gear. I think it s reasonable to assume that the unspecified items were the same. Also, the mix is the same as in his recent auction listings, and in the gear seized from Brown s house: a lot of cameras, plus the occasional phone, game system, GPS unit, laptop, CD player, et cetera.
The other thing that s strongly suggested san francisco vacation packages by the reviews is that Brown didn t start stealing things and selling them on eBay in September 2007. That may be the starting point he admits to, and the one the TSA is citing; but it sure looks like he got started around November 2006, and hit his stride in January of 2007.
As I said in an earlier comment, if the TSA had been making reasonable efforts to follow up on complaints about thefts, Brown would have shown up bright and clear on their radar. It s not like he was some kind of criminal mastermind. He was mailing customers their purchases using his own home as the return san francisco vacation packages address, and using his own credit cards rather than cash to pay the postage. The TSA didn t notice a thing. What cracked this case was HBO CNN spotting san francisco vacation packages their stolen camera on eBay, then working with the local police in New Jersey.
Earlier this year, a man was arrested at Dallas Fort Worth airport. He admitted taking over 400 bags, and police linked him to at least 600. He also worked at airports in Houston and Tulsa, allegedly stealing a number of suitcases every day. And long before that, a Las Vegas man regularly supplied a second-hand clothing store with the stuff from bags stolen off McCarran s baggage belt.
Phoenix: Police san francisco vacation packages discover nearly 1,000 stolen suitcases. 04 November 2009. And: Police sort through belongings of stolen bags; Locked safes, medical equipment, guns, piles of clothes among items. 06 November 2009. And: Luggage theft in Phoenix nets at least a thousand bags. 08 November san francisco vacation packages 2009. And: Luggage thief to serve 3.5-year prison term. 24 August 2010.
St. Louis: Authorities broke up a ring of airline thieves in St. Louis who were targeting soldier s bags that were shipping off to war. Baggage handlers pulled soldiers duffels off a conveyor belt in a tunnel. Among the stolen items recovered: laptops, electronic game systems, san francisco vacation packages cameras, cigarettes, battery chargers, sunglasses and firearms.
Portland: Baggage theft reports up nearly 50% this year. Northwest Airlines baggage handlers were caught stealing san francisco vacation packages items and posting them for sale on eBay from a supervisor s airline-owned computer. Portland airport police have received 195 reports san francisco vacation packages of baggage theft this year through October, compared with 132 reports in the same period of 2008. At least 43 of the reports this year relate to the ring at Northwest.
Airlines say baggage theft is rare among the millions of passengers who fly each year, but law-enforcement officials say it has been growing significantly. There s been a tremendous increase in the last five years. It s pretty bad a lot is getting stolen every day, said a prosecutor in the Queens County district san francisco vacation packages attorney s office, which handles airport theft cases in New York.
Airlines and the Transportation Security Administration often are slow to respond to reports and in most cases deny any responsibility. Airline ticket rules the contract of carriage exclude liability for any valuables in luggage, such as computers, cameras, san francisco vacation packages electronic equipment, jewelry, business documents, artwork or similar valuable items.
Amanda Slaver flew from Rochester, N.Y., to Las Vegas in February and found that her jewelry bag had been unzipped. The good stuff gold, diamond and sapphire family heirlooms had been taken and the plastic, glass and metal jewelry remained. For the next seven months she argued with Delta over a $3,000 claim. The airline said it wasn t liable because its contract of carriage excludes valuables from the airline s responsibility. Delta offered her a $100 voucher toward a future san francisco vacation packages ticket. A Delta spokeswoman says the airline does offer compensation to customers within the limits of our contract of carriage.
Both airline workers and TSA screeners have access to checked luggage, and it s often impossible to tell who is responsible unless san francisco vacation packages a thief is caught red-handed. Airlines say they try to avoid finger-pointing with TSA over blame. Law-enforcement officials say TSA thefts, though they got lots of attention in past years, account for a relatively small