The Top 20 Airports for TSA Theft
By MEGAN CHUCHMACH | ABC News
Your suitcase has been tagged and whisked away for a TSA
security check before being loaded onto a plane en route to your final
destination. How safe are the belongings inside? The TSA has fired nearly 400
employees for allegedly stealing from travelers, and for the first time, the
agency is revealing the airports where those fired employees worked.
Newly released figures provided to ABC
News by the TSA in response to a Freedom of Information Act request show that,
unsurprisingly, many of the country's busiest airports also rank at the top for
TSA employees fired for theft.
Sixteen of the top 20 airports for theft
firings are also in the top 20 airports in terms of passengers passing through.
At the head of the list is Miami
International Airport, which ranks twelfth in passengers but first in TSA theft
firings, with 29 employees terminated for theft from 2002 through December
2011. JFK International Airport in New York is second with 27 firings, and Los
Angeles International Airport is third with 24 firings. JFK ranks sixth in
passenger traffic, while LAX is third. Chicago, while second in traffic, ranked
20th in theft firings.
The four airports listed in the TSA's
top 20 list of employee firings for theft that aren't also among the FAA's top
20 for passenger activity are Salt Lake City International, Washington Dulles,
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, and San Diego International.
The top airports across the U.S. for TSA
employees fired for theft are:
2. JFK International
Airport (27)
3. Los Angeles
International Airport (24)
4. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (17) 5. Las Vegas-McCarren International Airport (15)
6. Dallas/Fort Worth
International Airport and New York-Laguardia Airport (14 each)
8. Newark Liberty,
Philadelphia International, and Seattle-Tacoma International airports (12 each)
11. Orlando
International Airport (11)
12. Houston-George Bush
Intercontinental Airport and Salt Lake City International Airport (10 each)
14. Washington Dulles International Airport (9)
15. Detroit Metro
Airport and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (7)
17. Boston-Logan International,
Denver International and San Diego International airports (6)
20. Chicago O'Hare
International Airport (5)
During a recent ABC News investigation,
an iPad left behind at a security checkpoint at the Orlando airport was tracked
as it moved 30 miles away to the home of the TSA officer last seen handling it.
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. Ramirez was later fired by the TSA.
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 of passenger belongings. The other nine iPads were
returned to ABC News after being left behind.
The agency disputes that theft is a
widespread problem, however, saying the number of officers fired
"represents less than one-half of one percent of officers that have been
employed" by TSA.
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