Man Arrested After TSA Finds 200 Credit Cards
Mar 11, 2015, 3:19 pm
#1
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Man Arrested After TSA Finds 200 Credit Cards
From here:
The Sun-Sentinel reports that a 25-year-old New York man was arrested at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Sunday after TSA agents found several stacks of credit cards in his duffel bag.
Mar 11, 2015, 3:27 pm
#2
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Unless he was some sort of ninja and could throw them so they sliced open people's throats, I fail to see how this was a threat to aviation safety.
The man was clearly engaged in credit card fraud, but that's irrelevant to the TSA's mission.
The man was clearly engaged in credit card fraud, but that's irrelevant to the TSA's mission.
Mar 11, 2015, 3:58 pm
#3
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Are you suggesting the agent/agents should have just ignored the cards once they found them?
Mar 11, 2015, 4:17 pm
#4
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I'm well aware that the Ninth Circuit disagrees with me on this (see McCarty).
Mar 11, 2015, 5:04 pm
#5
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Absolutely. The only legitimate purpose for the search is to protect the security of aviation. Anything found in the course of the search that doesn't pose a threat to aviation should be disregarded.
I'm well aware that the Ninth Circuit disagrees with me on this (see McCarty).
I'm well aware that the Ninth Circuit disagrees with me on this (see McCarty).
Mar 11, 2015, 5:17 pm
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Credit/bank/debit/gift card churning gone out of control?
62 cards with one of two named people doesn't strike me as impossible in non-illegal circumstamces. The rest of the cards as blanks does seem possibly more suspicious, but the TSA should not be wasting time and getting distracted by non-WEIs such as this -- and yet that is what they did, lose focus.
62 cards with one of two named people doesn't strike me as impossible in non-illegal circumstamces. The rest of the cards as blanks does seem possibly more suspicious, but the TSA should not be wasting time and getting distracted by non-WEIs such as this -- and yet that is what they did, lose focus.
Mar 11, 2015, 8:05 pm
#7
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I suspect the stacks of cards confused the x-ray guy.
Mar 11, 2015, 8:07 pm
#8
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I agree the search should be to protect the security of aviation and any search started for any other reason is unreasonable. However, if in the course of searching to protect the security of aviation they find other potentially illegal items then I have no trouble with them bringing that to the immediate attention of the appropriate law enforcement.
I object to the body imaging scanners because of this--they're ineffective against properly concealed metal and thus less effective than the WTMD at providing actual security. I think they're more aimed at drugs.
Mar 12, 2015, 7:25 am
#9
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I have zero problem with the TSA saying "can't identify what this item is in the x-ray, we need to do a bag check to clarify." Once it was identified that the item in question wasn't dangerous, however, the TSA's job was done.
Mar 12, 2015, 8:10 am
#10
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Like any other rent-a-cops, TSA bullies imagine themselves as LEOs, and abuse the power they imagine they have. I too have seen it, and been a victim of it. The opportunity for the public to complain or seek redress is limited and in most cases useless.
Mar 12, 2015, 8:12 am
#11
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However, as you point out the TSA's mission is not in the general prevention of crime but specifically the threat to aviation security. So, TSA should not be publicizing their identification and reporting of crime unless it is directly related to aviation security nor accumulating statistics on it. This avoids the risk of conflating the mission which you are rightly concerned about.
Mar 12, 2015, 12:36 pm
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Mar 12, 2015, 1:16 pm
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and that is exactly where the problems come from. As soon as they start marketing this 'value add', it becomes tempting to them to think of their searches from the start as looking beyond air safety and security and straying into unreasonable search and seizure.
Mar 12, 2015, 1:24 pm
#14
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and that is exactly where the problems come from. As soon as they start marketing this 'value add', it becomes tempting to them to think of their searches from the start as looking beyond air safety and security and straying into unreasonable search and seizure.
Mar 12, 2015, 1:27 pm
#15
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I can easily see that happening. Locally it's not a problem....at least not for my wife and I....and actually I can't remember ever going through what I considered an unreasonable search but then again we probably don't meet or fit their "profile". PreCheck and Federal ID's make getting through security pretty easy for us so we're maybe not typical.