Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Yahoo news reports:
The TSA reached a mind-boggling new low in customer service this week when it was revealed that one agent had single-handedly absconded with over $200,000 worth of travelers' belongings, primarily cameras and laptops, and proceeded to unload his booty on eBay. His latest haul: A near-$50,000 camera that an HBO employee had been traveling with.The culprit is one Pythias Brown, a New Jersey resident who worked in the TSA department at Newark Liberty Airport. Finally busted, police discovered an inventory of 66 cameras, 31 laptops, assorted jewelry, and more when they searched his home. How'd he finally get caught? Brown snagged a camera belonging to CNN, and they found it for sale on eBay, where Brown had been converting the gear into cash.
Don't you feel safe from terrorists now? I sure do. And by the way, this was all done in the back from checked luggage, which means you can't find out about it until you land, perhaps thousands of miles from where your stuff was stolen:
Of note: Brown appears to have been taking items from checked luggage in the back rooms of the airport, not carry-ons. (One has to imagine you'd notice your $50,000 camera was missing after it came off the x-ray line.) But since consumers are no longer allowed to lock their luggage (or, at least, the TSA is allowed to break those locks as it sees fit), travelers have no real means of protection when it comes to guarding against inside job thievery like this.
Your tax dollars at work.
Politics
Comments
I'm having trouble imagining why a person would put their laptop-- to say nothing of a $50,000 camera-- in their checked luggage.
Posted by: Gretchen | October 26, 2008 10:14 AM
Presumably the camera would be in a nice protective case with lenses etc.
Since you are allowed only one item of hand luggage (at least where I come from), then you would not be able to take anything else into the cabin.
So, you check it in and take your laptop, book, magazines etc on as hand luggage.
Posted by: Felix | October 26, 2008 10:26 AM
Shades of Juvenal -- but who is to guard the guards themselves?
Posted by: Nan | October 26, 2008 11:10 AM
TSA Gangstaz, while utterly lacking in the work safety department(including audio, don't try it), provides insight into TSA customer service practices in amusing musical form.
Posted by: phisrow | October 26, 2008 11:27 AM
I'm having trouble imagining why a person would put their laptop-- to say nothing of a $50,000 camera-- in their checked luggage.
I'm pretty sure that that $50,000 camera plus accessories exceeds the weight and size limits for hand luggage.
Personally, if I *had* to get my camera gear through a US airport at this point, I'd be sending it first class air freight, with insurance and tracking.
Posted by: Graculus | October 26, 2008 1:09 PM
It's awfully ignorant of the reporter to describe this as 'mind-boggling'. Many similar, but much smaller scale incidents have already been reported. Security experts have been predicting this sort of thing since TSA was announced.
Posted by: llewelly | October 26, 2008 2:30 PM
When you slash wages, reduce hiring qualifications, break unions, reduce oversight from other agencies, and appoint incompetent private sector hacks to do public sector work, this is what you get. Yet another reason why we need to get rid of the abominable HSA, reinstate the protections removed by the Patriot act, and turn away from the "privatize everything" impulse of the last 30 years.
Posted by: Julian | October 26, 2008 4:59 PM
Julian:
Hear! Hear!
There are some things that government does a whole lot better than the private sector (e.g. Medicare vs. HMOs, police vs. Brinks, &c, &c). And there are things the private sector does better than the government. Care and protection of people and their property is not one of them.
I guess we can thank St. Ronnie, the influence of the Libertarian small/no government and Friedman's Chicago School for the last thirty years of privatisation of government functions and "trickle down" of increasing paper wealth.
Posted by: MartinDH | October 26, 2008 5:51 PM
Julian,
Whatever the merits of your argument in general, you've got it completely backwards on the TSA. Prior to 9/11, each airport hired its own security from private contractors. After 9/11, although there was no evidence that bagcheckers/security guards were in any way at fault, Bush nationalized airport security workers. They all work for the TSA, a government agency, now. So if privatizing everything isn't the answer to all our problems, apparently neither is making them all public employees.Posted by: James Hanley | October 26, 2008 6:47 PM
Protection and care of customers is one thing private organizations do better than government. If that happens in a private organization the worker is out, and if it's serious the security company is out. When it's the government... yeah, we can fire the company, right? Nope. We're stuck with their cheap labour, and shitty screening and lack of incentives to do a good job (and lack of oversight). If it's privatized at least you get what you pay for, good or bad.
Posted by: RSM | October 26, 2008 9:16 PM
I've KNOWN a few of the people who did this specific job or worked with these people at the local airport. It barely pays more than minimum wage, and it's a 20 hour a week job with all kinds of special conditions and fill-in duty that doesn't allow a second job.
The confiscated items were, as of 2004, removed to a dumpster. Between a couple of buildings. Unmonitored.
Some confiscation guidelines were given, but leeway was given to the individual inspector's personal judgment as to what could be confiscated.
So, take the kind of person who is desperate enough to accept that job, with the opportunity to remove at will, with armed backup, whatever they felt needed to go to the dumpster they might or might not visit at breaktime. No security check was provided for screeners leaving, only arriving. Sounds like nothing's changed. Several guys kept a sharpie handy to initial "their" stuff before it went off to the dumpster.
Moral of this story? Never take anything to the airport which a high school dropout who lives in the parent's basement would think is cool. Ipods more than a few months old are okay, though, they've all got at least one already.
Posted by: John | October 26, 2008 9:57 PM
Thanks for posting that story. I hope people will remember not to put anything of value in their luggage.
Posted by: Phil | October 27, 2008 12:05 AM
Julian: In addition to James Hanley's points I'll just say that the way you deal with a problem like this is by raising pay, heavy monitoring and a policy of dismissal for the first misadventure. That doesn't sound like something you'll get from unionised government employees.
Besides which, in what sense is the Bush administration "small government"? Apart from hiring a few PMCs (the one area all non-anarchist libertarians think should be a government function) what has Bush actually privatised? He seems like another big government politician to me.
Posted by: James K | October 27, 2008 1:43 AM
My stepson, who served with the Nat'l Guard in Iraq, works security now. He's been looking for work, and told me he was going to apply to be a TSA agent at the airport. Hopefully, I dissuaded him from trying. I can think of no other job that is so thankless and unnecessary than asking law-abiding citizens to empty their pockets and take off their shoes just so they can walk to their gate. TSA turnover is horrific. That's why they're always advertising for staff.
Posted by: wheatdogg | October 27, 2008 6:05 AM
wheatdogg said:
Thank you for trying to dissuade your stepson from pursuing that job. TSA agents are performing a degrading task (for both travelers and themselves), and if they have any civility then they soon come to realize it....which has the result of making them either ineffectual or downright surly, or both.
Posted by: Gretchen | October 27, 2008 6:35 AM
Camera equipment in luggage is pretty standard, as far as I know. I used to travel with pro photographers. Cameras (sometimes they have more than one) plus lenses and other gear - with lots of padding - will fill a large suitcase; not a carry-on sized one.
Laptops, too, if you're carrying more than one. Which my boss usually does, and he's had at least one "de-terrorized out of his possession" by... someone. Not sure who, but the likeliest candidate is guess who?
Posted by: pough | October 27, 2008 1:43 PM
One solution for checking expensive equipment is to travel with firearms. Seriously.
Firearms cannot be carried on a plane; they must be checked. They also must be locked with a non-TSA-accessible lock specifically to prevent them from being accessed after checking. You must remain with the case while it is being searched and then must ensure that the case is locked and the keys provided to you. ( see www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/assistant/editorial_1666.shtm )
Some photographers have reportedly started carrying a starter's pistol (like those used at track meets) that they pack with their camera equipment.
-Richard
(Who does not own or travel with firearms.)
Posted by: Richard | October 27, 2008 1:52 PM
St. Ronnie the Senile
Posted by: khan | October 27, 2008 2:34 PM
Martin, Khan, don't be disrespectful. The correct title in the Church of the Right Elephant is Saint Ronnie of Alzheimer's, patron saint of understandable right-wing stupidity. ;) DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | October 27, 2008 2:42 PM
I have been shipping expensive gear for a while. I also have had cash taken from me at SeaTac. I carry cash in a money clip, not my wallet. Since the clip is metal, I have to take it out of my pocket. I got 'randomly' screened at SeaTac and when I was done, the clip was there but all the cash had been taken. When I asked about it I was told "we don't steal here, now move along". I asked for a supervisor and was told that I I wanted to make my plane and not spend the night in jail "Just walk away". $30 was not worth it, so I complied. Nothing I can do now as I live in Boston.
Posted by: mess | October 27, 2008 2:50 PM