Theft among the TSA is pretty common according to a former TSA agent who spent three years in prison for stealing.
Pythias Brown was jailed for stealing more than $800,000 of goods during a four-year period as a TSA agent at Newark Liberty International Airport. He got away with things such as cash, clothing, electronics and more. He was caught when he tried to sell a stolen CNN camera on auction site eBay. He forgot to remove the stickers from the CNN stickers from the camera.
"It became so easy, I got complacent," Brown told ABC News.
While Brown admits to being one of the biggest thieves of the Transportation Security Administration, he says that he isn't the only one.
"It was very commonplace, very," said Brown told ABC.
He said that it's pretty easy to steal for TSA agents as no one pays close attention. He often worked alone, was told when the surveillance cameras weren't working and he was never questioned about his behavior. He said that managers never searched them or their bags.
"It was so easy. One day I walked out of there with the video game, the Nintendo Wii. I walked right out of the checkpoint with the Nintendo Wii in my hand," he told ABC.
Brown was just one of 400 TSA agents who were fired for theft over the past 10 years. This year, 11 agents have been fired so far, bringing the total to 381 officers fired from 2003 to 2012 for stealing.
The TSA told ABC that they has "a zero-tolerance policy for theft and terminates any employee who is determined to have stolen from a passenger."
They denied that stealing is a widespread problem among the agency and that the number of agents fired is only less than one-half of one percent of the agents that were hired.
Brown said that TSA agents simply take items out of carry-on bags as they pass through X-ray machines while passengers are being screened.
"They aren't paying me, they're treating me wrong. They're doing this and they're doing that. And they just don't care," Brown said, trying to justify his actions.
Brown spoke about what he knew to ABC to try to make travelers aware of the theft that goes on among the TSA.
ABC held an investigation in which they planted 10 iPads at security checkpoints at various airports. One TSA agent at an airport in Orlando took the iPad home. Using a tracking device, ABC was able to find the iPad and they confronted TSA officer Andy Ramirez. He handed the device over, but tried to blame it on his wife.
Ramirez has since been fired.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
