Well, that's embarrassing! As part of a sting operation conducted by ABC News, an iPad left behind at a security checkpoint in Orlando was tracked 30 miles to the home of the TSA officer who last handled it.
ABC News is reporting that Orlando, Florida-based TSA officer Andy Ramirez was caught red-handed with an iPad left behind at a security checkpoint -- one of 10 that the news team deliberately placed there in a sting operation.
The revelation is only the latest part of an investigation into "hundreds of thefts by TSA officers of passenger belongings" at the Orlando airport in what House Transportation Committee chairman John Mica called "an outrage to the public, and actually to our aviation system."
TSA officer Ramirez was released from duty as of Wednesday afternoon and the agency told ABC News that it has "a zero-tolerance policy for theft and terminates any employee who is determined to have stolen from a passenger."
Ramirez initially denied having the missing iPad, which was found thanks to Apple's built-in Find my iPhone feature. The news crew pushed an audio alarm to the iPad, and only then did Ramirez turn it over "after taking off his TSA uniform shirt."
"I'm so embarrassed," Ramirez told ABC News. "My wife says she got the iPad and brought it home" from the airport.
Between 2003 and 2012, 381 TSA officers have been fired for theft, including 11 this year alone, although the agency is quick to note that number "represents less than one-half of one percent of officers that have been employed."
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(Image courtesy of ABC News)
