![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-117360-100x100.png\")
I wonder if the retired Sarge ever thought that (s)he'd still be very useful to the community after his/her retirement.
3 replies
I wonder if the retired Sarge ever thought that (s)he'd still be very useful to the community after his/her retirement.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-17616-100x100.png\")
As CSI has taught me...stealing guns NEVER works out.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-802739-100x100.png\")
@Smashville: Because CSI has also taught us to use the most generic things possible in the commission of a crime. After all the shoe print database is just waiting to get us. As is the bumper paint database. And the rope fiber database...
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-352646-100x100.png\")
@Stephmo: You know, as much as I like the CSI shows, and I do, I always wonder about all those databases. Tire tread, yeah. But shoes and car paint? And as for rope fiber, at least James Stewart didn't need that database to solve the crime.
@nybiker: Oh, I love CSI, I really do. But sometimes, they really make it hard to not notice that my brain candy is really bad for me.
I mean, how many unique brands of gasoline where the mixture is only sold in 2 stores in all of Miami will just be happened to be used to light a guy on fire? And that unique, overpriced gasoline will be in the middle of some gas-theft ring thing? Really? Really? Really?
I guess I'm just waiting for that one episode where they run every conceivable test and go, \"I don't know what to tell you, I've got nothing from any of these clues and it's a pretty mundane crime, Horatio. I think this one is going unsolved...\"
![\"user-pic\"](\"/css/images/default.gif\")
Finally these thieves may feel the fear of getting caught. I hope more sting operations are to come, and they stop the obviously rampant criminal activity going on.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-729254-100x100.png\")
@majinbijiita: Yup, stings also worked in NJ for catching all those corrupt gov't officials and rabbis. Stings FTW!
Firearms are pretty much something you have to check. Unless you have an FFL, or can ship it to someone who is an FFL, you can't ship a firearm.
I had to go to Omaha after a grandparent died, and needed to bring a pair of pistols back with me. I couldn't ship them to myself, and don't know an FFL I can use, so I had to take them with me on the flight. I checked and declared them in a locked container, and got them back just fine.
This story actually makes me feel more confident knowing that when there is a problem like this, they are able to find the culprit(s), recover the items, and jail them.
There is no way to completely eradicate crime, and this is an example of the system working.
@DJFelix:
Strange. Here in Canada where we have very strict gun laws you can ship any type of firearm anywhere using cheap old Canada post.
I don't see the benefit to using an FFL for shipments. Can someone enlighten me?
@andrewe: Using an FFL creates a paperwork trail. The benefit is mostly to the agencies that care about paperwork.
There is little stopping anyone from shipping a gun in an unmarked box to anyone they choose, except the threat of getting caught. The practical truth is that people in the illicit gun trade don't bother shipping guns through the mail or UPS anyway. They smuggle them instead. So the rules about using a FFL won't catch criminals anyway.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-433532-100x100.png\")
@DJFelix: I fully agree on declaring firearms; as I recall some years back (way before TSA) an undeclared firearm got into the baggage handling process (was it in Denver?) and went off, injuring or killing a baggage handler. After that, they got real strict about declaring at check-in so they could verify it was unloaded and tag it as such. Has the process changed much since then?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-21229-100x100.png\")
@zigziggityzoo: No, you can't. Not a pistol in any case. All handguns must be shipped to an FFL and shipped by overnight. Shipments must be by common carrier, not USPS, unless it's FFL to FFL.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-41318-100x100.png\")
Not correct. Re-enactors do this all the time to avoid having baggage handlers or nosy traffic cops grab their property.
You can mail yourself your own longarm or registered machinegun to yourself, Poste Restant ( General Delivery ). You show your ID at the destination Post Office, and take your package.
Pistols are a bit more difficult, since no one ( not even FFLs ) can use the mail for them. You use a parcel service ( I believe FedEx will handle them still ) using the same General Delivery type of service.
Just make sure possession is state-law legal at your destination.
Technically, the overnight requirement for pistols is a shipper policy and not an act of law. You can ship your pistol FedEx Ground without any legal repercussions, but if it gets lost or stolen they'll probably deny the insurance claim on your shipment of \"machine parts\". The policy is mostly a CYA move on the part of the carriers, they figure that the less time the gun is in their possession, the less time one of their employees has to steal it.
@dwneylonsr: Sorry. You can ship to yourself depending on state law. For instance don't try shipping to NY.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-64871-100x100.png\")
@zigziggityzoo: While you can ship a long gun pretty easily to yourself, it's very difficult to do the same with a handgun. Many (most?) shippers don't know the rules and aren't interested in furthering their knowledge, so for those of us who travel frequently with handguns the best way is to check it.
Calling someone a 'genius' sarcastically works better when you can spell 'sergeant' properly in headlines.
@aaronjpoehler: +1. I like that you, as a fellow member of the spelling police, are correcting the spelling of a police officer rank.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-255368-100x100.png\")
I'm sure this isn't the first time this has happened. So what about all the other people that have had stuff stolen by these people? It takes a (ex)cop or a government official to get robbed before anything is done or it's \"taken seriously\".
Glad they caught these guys, but if you lost something while going through that airport, you might consider a lawsuit.
@SacraBos:
I used to work for a major airline as a bag room supervisor and I witnessed an employee remove something from a passenger's bag. I confronted him and said \"What the f*#k are you doing?\" and he told me that the bag was vibrating and he was checking it out. Policy was that only supervisors \"checked out\" suspicious bags including those that vibrated. I wanted him disciplined, but I was told by my superiors that unless I saw him actually \"pocket\" the merchandise, the union would win the case with backpay. Essentially, I was told to \"let it go.\"
Long story short, never pack anything of value.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-665956-100x100.png\")
@SacraBos:
That was my first thought. It's never a big problem until it happens to someone with authority.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-614980-100x100.png\")
@tbax929: It's also never a big problem until someone steals something as strictly regulated as a firearm. Federal felony vs. misdemeanor.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-743193-100x100.png\")
@SacraBos: Delta is probably still in denial that their employees stole anything. Or, they're just going shrug and use the \"they're only contract employees, not real Delta employees.\" Anything to take anything resembling responsiblity for their shoddy security.
Amazing! After all the complaints for ordinary citizens about airline thefts, nothing happens. Let ONE retired police officer's handgun go missing and there's a sting operation to nab the culprets. I wish everyday people were so important or believable.
@dougp26364: That's because normal theft isn't considered a federal felony. Stealing a firearm is.
Fun tip for those people wary of checking valuables/high priced items in their luggage: Check a starter pistol (like people use for track events) or a flare gun in your luggage. Doesn't even have to have ammo. Due to their nature they still have to be treated as firearms and makes it less likely for your stuff to be rummaged through. The only way they can legally search your luggage is to have you present, and if your stuff gets opened without you there all hell will break loose. You also get to pick up your bag at either the oversize office or the airline's office at the baggage claim area. If you have a few extra minutes on either side of your trip to process your bags in and out of the system, this is the way to go.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-453211-100x100.png\")
The only way they can legally search your luggage is to have you present, and if your stuff gets opened without you there all hell will break loose.
Not with firearms, the only person who is allowed to have access to the keys to the lock is you. Typically when a firearm is declared, TSA will privately hand-screen the container, after which you then lock the container (which can have any lock you want, not just a TSA approved one). Here's a video out where, to keep TSA goons from rifling through his luggage this guy packs all of his stuff in his \"gun case\" which is a converted, steel, mortar round case that he locks with heavy grade disc locks like the kind you'd see on vending machines, and then just throws a starter pistol or flare gun in it so he can declare a firearm in it.
@Powerlurker: I wrote my first response to you after only about 10 or 15 minutes of watching. I just finished watching the entire 52 minute video. He's got good stories too. Thanks again for the info. Now I just have to get a flare gun and the 81mm mortar round case, locks, hinges, and I'm all set.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1074796-100x100.png\")
All together now...
\"...'cause Delta steals custommadehandguns\"
@lehrdude: \"several baggage handlers working for a company contracted by Delta Airlines\"
Obviously reading comprehension is not your strong suit
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-39117-100x100.png\")
@gaywolverine: What does the legal infrastructure matter? It's a technical detail, but moot.
If they're not part of Delta, they're still acting on Delta's behalf, and Delta has an overall responsibility to that baggage entrusted to them gets from Point A to Point B intact. If this means that Delta needs to do some extra diligence to ensure that they don't delegate baggage entrusted to them to third parties unworthy of that trust, so be it.
I have a very simple punishment for these people.
We build a platform in the middle of the terminal with one (or more) chairs.
The bad guys need to sit there 8 hours a day (they get a lunch and bathroom breaks but that adds to the 8 hours).
Each wears a sign that says: My name is .... I am a baggage handler. I stole from passengers' luggage.
Six months. Lots of press. Lots of photos. Pictures in the paper and on TV. Lots of nasty comments.
The next guys will certainly think twice.
Of course, if they don't like the humiliation, there is always jail time. . .
@maxx22: Except for the sign, that sounds too much like the lot of many a delayed passenger already?
Would this be an appropriate thread for pointing out what a cluster$%^k airport security is?
There is all of the TSA monkey business with shoes, liquids, and sharp implements. You have regular stories of flight crews power-tripping on passengers in the name of security.
Meanwhile, you have criminals walking around the so-called security zone with firearms. How is it that these people are so unsupervised that they have the opportunity to rifle through luggage, steal things, take them to their lockers, and then out of the airport?
I'm no terrorist mastermind, but it looks like it would be pretty easy to take a firearm from checked luggage and get it onto an airplane. Likewise, if people have the opportunity to take things from luggage and get them out of the airport; it stands to reason that they could get things into the airport and put them into luggage.
We're lucky this particular group of thieves was so damned stupid. Since passengers are required to declare checked firearms, that provides pretty good evidence that it was stolen from your luggage if it's missing when you get to your destination.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-101046-100x100.png\")
@arcticJKL: Actually, any forum is a good forum for pointing out how pointless and stupid US airport security is.
How does baggage theft not fall under that umbrella?? If douchebags can take stuff out, \"terrorists\" can put stuff in.
Oh and the TSA are only slightly more polite than the Gestapo.
This has been happening for a while. Friend of mine is a CHP officer traveling to a police competition 5 years ago had one of his firearms stolen while it was in the hands of the TSA.
About time
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-851357-100x100.png\")
How long had this been going on? Was the sting initiated because of the seriousness of stealing a firearm, or was it because it was a (retired) [i]cop's[/i] gun and the police take stronger action when one of their own is involved?
@HiPwr: Almost certainly due to the gun. Other people have been pointing out that it's a serious crime compared to just stealing cash and other \"normal\" valuables.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-91598-100x100.png\")
@HiPwr: Perhaps you have a better suggestion on how to get the airlines to care about customers' possessions being regularly looted by their own employees.
@nytmare: Huh? The airlines should report the theft and the police should catch the thieves. And they should do that no matter who the victim is, cop, or not.
FYI, all law enforcement weapons are on file with their serials, lot #'s, and images of their rifleings.
If someone pulls a fastie like that and shows up at a pawn shop with a cop gun, he's toast.
Only if it's the cop's duty weapon. The article made it sound like the gun was the guy's personally owned firearm.
You could have the baggage equivalent of sky marshals. Hide RFID chips inside interesting items like iPods, put said items into baggage and check it, then after the plane leaves, go around with a long-range RFID reader and see if any of them stayed behind. A quick online search shows readers for passive RFID chips can have ranges of hundreds of feet.
I think that the baggage handlers and anyone else who has access to the planes and luggage, should have to go through a screening when the arrive and leave the airport.
At the very least, if they are screened only when they leave, they would be caught if they had something on them that was later reported stolen
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-443428-100x100.png\")
My solution is naked baggage handlers. No pockets, no temptation. Unless they have voluminous skin folds...
@Tambar:
A friend of mine works at a bank counting money. She wears a skin-tight jumpsuit with no pockets at work, changes in and out of her jumpsuit in a locker room before/after work and is watched constantly by her immediate supervisor and closed-circuit camera to prevent monkey business. She says she's too paranoid to even think of trying to steal any money. Why can't they properly supervise baggage handlers and TSA?
I have stopped checking anything of any remote value.
@zekebullseye: I see your point but in reality I guess unless TSA personel have suspicion that a bomb or something of actual danger to the flight or airport is in the luggage they probably don't care nor should they. If the passanger declared the firearm and it was checked at one point what else can be with dishonest employees .
The airline baggage handlers need to be supervised by the carrier or whom ever they contract to .
Almost once a year they always seem to catch luggage thieves in places like Miami . What puzzles me is that did you ever see an airline application- they want more thoroughness and detail than your average job application even if for a non skill position like baggage handler .
Just goes to show you all those HR techniques for finding the best candidate are useless . Some people take a job with an angle already in mind-theft and others hop on the bandwagon meaning it's an existing problem -I wonder what these criminals did .
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1034061-100x100.png\")
@zekebullseye: Supervising women in skin-tight outfits counting my own cash would be very interesting. Watching some middle-aged guy search through some old guy's luggage...not so much.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-71417-100x100.png\")
Sad thing is he's retired.. as only a sergeant.
@allstarecho: There's only so much room in the hierarchy. Or do you think that some day you will be CEO?
I use a medical product in a new way.
It is called tegaderm -think plastic wrap-.
after i lock the lock, i cover it with colored paper and tegaderm so i can see instantly whether the lock has been opened and the colored paper makes duplicating it difficult although not impossible.
BUT I NEVER CHECK VALUABLES!!!!!!!!! NOTHING AT ALL EVER!!!!!!
If I had a gun to transport I'd get to the airport 20 minutes early just to have a manager TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for this thing that is a reason TSA exists
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-147087-100x100.png\")
I fail to understand how the handgun was stolen, based on everything I've read here in the comments. You have to check them, and TSA can't search without you present. And you lock it.
@starbreiz: You are mistaken. When you declare a firearm the TSA will first make sure it's packed properly. At any time further down the line they can, and usually do, open it to recheck.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-21750-100x100.png\")
Here's a bizarre lost/stolen items story. I recently flew home to Denver after an extended stay in California on business. I packed into one suitcase (that had mostly clothing) my GPS windshield mount (the GPS unit itself stayed in my briefcase, which I carried on) and a mesh bag (6\" x 4\" x 2\") containing mostly iPod-related cables (again, the iPods were in the briefcase) and the charger for my bluetooth earpiece (which again was in the briefcase).
When I got home in Denver and unpacked, both the GPS windshield mount and the mesh bag were missing. I can only surmise that someone saw them, thought there must be something valuable in all that, and grabbed them without checking closely. As I said, bizarre. ..bruce..
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-413611-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-261962-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-23360-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-391618-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-52435-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-421973-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-25844-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-48046-100x100.png\")
\"Remember not to check your valuables, folks.\"
Good advice, except when you're required to check your valuables. As is the cased with firearms.
Remember not to try to carry on your firearms, folks.
@MauriceCallidice: Maybe it's time to repeal that law that requires firearms to be checked.
@MauriceCallidice: @burnedout: But they are taking it seriously.