Airport screener nicked electronics

PUNTERS AT NEWARK Liberty International Airport, might have thought it odd that all their electronics gear was being confiscated in the name of keeping the US safe.

But it turns out that the US security screeners were just stealing electronics gear to flog on Ebay.

Pythias Brown had for the past year been nicking electronic equipment from luggage of the passengers while pretending that he was confiscating suspect gear.

Within months, he had snatched more than 100 items and was starting to get a wee bit ambitious.

What got him noticed was when he tried to nick a $47,900 camera from an HBO crew and a camcorder from a CNN employee.

One of the victims spotted his gear up for sale on Ebay and alerted another team of investigators working for Homeland Security.

Officials at the Transportation Security Administration, which employs the airport screeners, said Brown has been placed on administrative leave and will soon be fired.

When investigators raided Brown's home they found shedloads of electronics gear including 66 cameras, 31 laptop computers, 20 cell phones, 17 electronic games, 13 pieces of jewellery, 12 GPS devices, 11 MP3 players, eight camera lenses, six video cameras and two DVD players.

On average Brown was nicking two to three items per week from the airport beginning in September 2007.

Coppers investigating the case put a winning bid on some of the gear and arranged to pay through Paypal. Brown listed his Maplewood home as the return address on the package. Brown's credit card was used to pay for the postage and he was filmed mailing it. µ

L'Inq
NJ.com