Newsstand - Arrests Up in Atlanta Airport Restrooms

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8OETTJO0&show_article=1


Arrests Up in Atlanta Airport Restrooms


ATLANTA (AP) - At the world's busiest airport, plainclothes officers patrolling public restrooms in search of luggage thieves have instead uncovered a rash of other, more sordid crimes.
The new restroom dragnet has led to the arrests of more than 30 people in three months for indecent exposure and public sex acts at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Airport restrooms apparently have become such popular meeting places for men looking for sexual trysts with other men that they have been suggested several times as meeting places in personal ads on the Web site Craigslist.

"Hey ... I'm stuck at the airport from 5 p.m. and I'm looking for a good time ...," one ad reads. In another, the person posting says he is stuck at the airport for three hours in the evening and is looking for "discreet, quick action."

The new patrols were started to stop theft, not catch people in sex acts, police officials say.

Officers started monitoring the restrooms after figuring out that thieves were pulling bags off baggage-claim carousels and taking them into toilet stalls to comb through them.

"We're trying to provide a safe environment for everyone at the airport," said Officer Joseph Villafane, a police spokesman
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The article notes also notes that the head of Atlanta's MARTA transit system was among those arrested. He denies the charges.

What the article doesn't explain his what must be "mission creep," if you'll pardon the triple-pun. As anyone who's been to Hartsfield knows, all of the luggage carousels save two (former Int'l, not used by AA) are in the main terminal, with just a few restrooms nearby. None of the restrooms in the concourses could possibly be places where thieves who've stolen luggage from the belts go to rifle through the bags. So... has the appetite of ATL's police been tempted to expand from this we-were-looking-for-thieves-but-found-preverts explanation to the more traditional sex police routine?

I'm not condoning anything. I'm just observing that the explanation isn't water-tight.

I had read about this Hot-lanta story sometime last week and was amused by the "luggage thief" angle that then focused on bathrooms.

somewhat related, but does ATL (ive been there once but didn't pay attention) have needle disposal in the bathrooms? i know IND and SFO do, but ORD and MDW do not.

Just another indication of how air travel has changed, thanks to deregulation. From a time when one dressed up to go, the airport has become more like a bus station -- say New York's Port Authority Terminal -- down-market, hectic, noisy, crowded and now, like a bus station, slightly sordid.