TSA K9 Officer Bites Passenger

It’s not just the two-legged TSA Officers who attack passengers. A 4-legged TSA Officer, employed as a drug-sniffing dog, bit a passenger in the stomach for no apparent reason.

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NBC 11 Atlanta is reporting the story about the Rome, Georgia, woman:

A Rome woman is still recovering after being bitten in the side by a TSA bomb-sniffing dog.

The incident happened on May 2nd in the south terminal baggage claim carousel at Hartsfield-Jackson airport.

Sue Dubitsky told 11Alive News she was standing in the baggage claim area and noticed the K-9 officer and handler standing beside her. She said she was barely paying them any attention when the dog suddenly lunged and bit her in the lower stomach.

We can only speculate as to what kind of abuse or mistreatment the TSA subjects its canine officers to for them to lash out like this. Typically, bomb-sniffing dogs are trained to quietly sit down next to the offending item.

The victim said she wanted to speak out to keep this from happening to someone else.

“Can you imagine that [dog's mouth] around a child’s neck?” she said. “And that, the height of my waistline, could easily be a child.”

TSA provides and trains bomb-sniffing dogs for airport security. The dogs are handled by local law enforcement. In this case, the handler was an Atlanta Police officer.

Atlanta Police and the TSA are investigating the incident.

In the meantime, be careful around any TSA agent, whether or not they have 4 legs and a tail!

TSA Snaps Cellist’s Bow in Half.

The Strad reports:

A rare Heinrich Knopf bow belonging to Alban Gerhardt was damaged by security officers as he entered the US. In what the cellist called ‘an act of brutal and careless behaviour’, the bow [...] was snapped in two, over the bridge of the cello, by air security staff at O’Hare International Airport, Chicago, as they examined the case’s contents.

According to Gerhardt, ‘The bow must have somehow moved halfway out of its cover (the tip was still in the cover), and when it was halfway out, [Transportation Security Administration workers] forced the case shut and the bow broke.’ The incident occurred on 6 February, a day before Gerhardt was due to perform Prokofiev’s Symphony–Concerto with the Madison Symphony Orchestra in Madison, Wisconsin.

Gerhardt had also brought a Baroque bow in the case, for a subsequent concert in New York, but for the Prokofiev he was obliged to borrow a bow from Uri Vardi, a cellist and teacher at the University of Wisconsin School of Music.

The TSA broke a baroque bow.

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Flying While Female? Watch Out!

Some TSA Officer’s aren’t pedophiles. That’s right: Some of our men and women with shiny badges aren’t interested in children, they’re interested in red-blooded grown American women!

Our friend Christopher Elliot writes:

The TSA has a thing for female passengers, a fact that any employee would be hard-pressed to deny. Agents have a disturbingly extensive vocabulary to describe beautiful passengers, including words like “Alfalfa,” “Code Red,” and “Hotel Bravo” (get it — Hot Babe?).

TSA agents apparently don’t flirt with attractive females, they “engage.” And when they talk about an “X-ray” they aren’t necessarily referring to a controversial full-body scanner; “X-ray” is screener-speak for, you guessed it, an attractive female passenger.

In his column “Flying While Female? 5 Things To Remember At The Airport” Elliot mentions some tips for women flying. While some of his ideas, such as the one to “dress down” may be of dubious merit, I’d certainly heed his advice not to get a private screening! You want them to be out in public, not behind closed doors.

Lightning Strikes Twice at the TSA

You probably remember Reggie Edwards, the TSA “officer” who stole $36 dollars from someone and got caught.

Mr. Edwards has been arrested again! This time for stealing $150.00. Seems like after the $36 caper made the news, another passenger came forward and there was enough evidence (perhaps from the video surveillance) to indict Reggie for this crime.

WSOC reports:

HARLOTTE, N.C. — A Charlotte woman told Eyewitness News she also had cash stolen from a TSA baggage inspector at Charlotte Douglas airport.

Reggie Edwards was arrested and charged with stealing cash out of a suitcase.

Edwards was arrested again Thursday after police said they linked him to stealing $150 from a woman’s suitcase just weeks before.

“I was shocked,” said victim Nancy Turner. “I have always traveled like this. Not to carry a lot on me, and just to put it deep inside my luggage and it’s never been bothered and my luggage has been inspected a number of times.”

You can read the whole report at WSOT TV’s web site. And see the thread on Flyertalk, too.

No Job Too Small for the TSA

The TSA doesn’t just steal high-ticket items, like iPads. And they don’t always net thousand of dollars with every “score.” They’ll take as little as $36 dollars.

According to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police report, the 52-year-old Reggie Edwards, pictured below, stole $36 from the victim’s suitcase. He was charged with larceny under $50

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WSOC TV is reporting:

Passengers just hearing about the news were outraged.

“The employees are supposed to be protecting our land from future terrorist attacks, not stealing from fellow Americans,” said Jimmy Demopoulos

Edwards was fired for the incident and a TSA Spokesman said in a statement Sunday that “TSA does not tolerate theft and moved immediately to terminate this individual.”

Eyewitness News went to an address listed for Edwards on Sunday. A man answered the door and then slammed it shut.

See more news at WSOC TV.