Two Arrested For Stealing From Checked Luggage At Logan Airport
BOSTON (CBS) – Two Logan baggage handlers have been busted for stealing from checked luggage. Investigators say the pair took money, laptops, cameras and other high end items right out of passengers bags.
Passengers arriving at Terminal E, where the two men worked and stole items and were ultimately arrested, didn't take the news lightly. "It's just an invasion of privacy," said Jimmy Kinneen.
Ken Lapenta, returning from Ireland said, "(it) makes you nervous."
WBZ-TV's Diana Perez reports
All of the theft victims flew international, on Lufthansa.
"To worry about other people going through it and you already have to deal with five TSA officers going through it. The thought of once you give it to them someone taking something, it's a little concerning," said Kristina Hultman.
In court Wednesday, State Police say the two men, both 25-years-old, worked together to steal items. Officers set up hidden cameras and caught Joshua Wright and LaShawn Fontenot hiding laptops in their sweaters, cameras in their backpacks.
WBZ tried to talk to both men at their homes. No one answered at Wright's Brighton apartment and a woman at Fontenot's Lynn home said he lives there only sometimes. Still State Police say they recovered some of the stolen from that house.
In all the two men stole cash, three laptops, at least two cameras, boxes of tobacco and much more.
"I think it's horrible if they do that. You have trust in stuff and it shouldn't be stolen," says Kinneen.
While TSA officers are watched on surveillance video as they check your luggage, baggage handlers get a free pass at your stuff. In fact back in 2009, TSA official George Nacarra admitted that Logan Airport has holes in its security system. "There could be more closed circuit TV cameras," he says.
The pair were employed by an outside company called Swissport which works for Logan. State Police say that company was very cooperative in its investigation. Both men will be back in court in April and have been banned from returning to Logan.
