New video footage purports to show a man assisting TSA agents and stealing belongings from his bag as he goes through security at Miami International Airport.
Surveillance video released by the Florida Attorney’s Office appears to show a security checker unzipping the passenger’s bag and placing the passenger’s belongings in his pocket before passing him through a CT scanner.
All three agents, Lavarius Williams, 33, Josué Gonzalez, 20, and Elizabeth Faster, 22, were arrested in July.
However, the charges against Fuster were dropped and he is believed to have been released, according to CBS.
Surveillance video from July 29 includes approximately 20 minutes of footage that allegedly shows Williams and Gonzalez stealing items from a bag.
In one clip, an agent opens a small pocket on the front of a bag on a conveyor belt. He slipped out his wallet and, still holding the bag, shoved it into the CT scanner and reached into his pocket.
In another clip, two agents can be seen focusing on one corner of the security tray before one of the agents places the item in his pocket.
According to an arrest report, a federal security officer at Miami International Airport contacted Miami-Dade Police about a theft in progress at the Concourse E security checkpoint.
A TSA agent was caught slipping a wallet out of a passenger’s bag.
(WPLG/YouTube)
“I think they’re just so nervous because they don’t realize they’re on camera,” passenger David Caban said. CBS News. “This is a very monitored place. What are you thinking?”
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According to a police report obtained by CBS, the pair are accused of “extracting $600 from a passenger’s wallet while the passenger was being searched.”
The report states that they “distracted the passengers being searched in order to steal money from their belongings…”
In a statement to CBS regarding the airport theft incident, the TSA said, “TSA has removed the employee from screening duties pending the completion of the investigation and administrative action.”
“The Transportation Security Administration holds its Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) to the highest professional and ethical standards and has zero tolerance for misconduct in the workplace,” the statement said. “We actively and aggressively investigate these allegations of misconduct, submit our findings to the Miami-Dade Police Department, and work closely with them. Employees who do not are held accountable.”
All three were charged with an organized fraud scheme, but the charges against Furster were later dropped.