Couple Charged In Airport Luggage Thefts
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – A South Florida couple is under arrest after they allegedly helped themselves to luggage at both Miami International and Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International airports.
Sean Maxwell, 44, and his wife Lorina Flint, 42, were charged in at least five thefts from the airports since early March, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
The thefts were captured by surveillance cameras. In each case, a "well dressed" man would wait in the baggage claim area with passengers. He would then help himself to passing bags on the carousel, load them onto a cart and wheel them away.
Last Sunday, a United Airlines employee at Ft. Lauderdale's airport spotted a man in the baggage area who looked like the guy in the video, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office. He alerted security and deputies stopped the man, Maxwell, as he tried to get into a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Flint was at the wheel.
In the arrest report, it was noted that Maxwell was sweating profusely and the deputy wrote that he appeared nervous. Flint reportedly first told the deputy that she was waiting for her husband. She then changed her story and said she was there to pick up her husband's friend, according to the sheriff's office.
In the back seat of the Jeep, deputies reportedly found two large suitcases and piles of travel items such as toiletry bags, sneakers, toothbrushes and hair brushes. They also found several bottles of prescription pills with names scratched off the labels, according to the arrest report.
During their appearance Monday in bond court, Flint told Broward Court Judge John "Jay" Hurley that they lived with eight children and couldn't afford a lawyer or post bond.
Flint and Maxwell are each being held without bold on out-of-county warrants unrelated to the baggage theft charges.
The Sun-Sentinel contributed to this report.
