Thursday, February 2, 2012

It's the latest in a string of thefts that has embarrassed the Transportation Security Administration.

A TSA agent at New York's Kennedy Airport is accused of stealing $5,000 from the jacket of a passenger who was going through security. The jacket was on an X-ray conveyer belt. Police say Alexandra Schmid was seen on video taking the money from a jacket
pocket, wrapping it in a glove and taking it to a bathroom.

The money hasn't been recovered. Police think she may have given it to someone else.

Schmid is charged with grand larceny.

The arrest yesterday came on the same day that a former TSA screener was sentenced to eight months in prison for trying to steal a laptop from a passenger at the Memphis airport.

Last month, another agent -- who searched checked luggage at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport -- was suspended after the owner of a stolen iPad used the tracking feature to find it at the agent's home. Police found seven other iPads there.

Two former agents at JFK were sentenced last month to six months in jail for stealing $40,000 from a piece of luggage last year.