WillCAD

That's image 9 of 11. I see it. It's only $60 - but why would the bills be in the photo with the confiscated ammo unless the bills were being confiscated too?

gsoltso

I am currently awaiting an answer on that particular photo, because TSOs do not confiscate monies or cash. The reason I asked for a clarification was because I had not seen something specifically indicating that cash was confiscated. It could be something as simple as the cash was in the same container, the LEOs may have asked for it to be included in case there was a question about it.There are any number of reasons the cash could have been in the picture. If the cash was confiscated, it was done by some other organization for their reasons. At this point, we could theorize and suppose all day, but I do not have any indication that the cash was confiscated. All we know for certain was that it was actually in that picture.

Asking for clarification before responding is never a stupid thing - even though others may think it is.

Caradoc

They don't?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.1234370

http://consumerist.com/2011/02/16/ts...om-passengers/

http://www.examiner.com/article/tsa-...-about-groping

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP9e3e...0d01479c1.html

A mere sampling of TSA employees absconding with cash.

TSA employees do these things all the time. It would be more accurate to say that they're not supposed to do it, but the TSA can't even secure their own employees - let alone entire airports or any single aircraft.

petaluma1

At least I'll give you credit for wiggling out/covering up. Do you honestly expect us to believe that you knew what the poster was questioning?

WillCAD

Oh, come on Caradoc! There is a big difference between an official confiscation under color of authority and an individual TSA engaging in outright petty theft on the job.

We know TSA is full of theives, but the issue we were discussing was official confiscation of cash, which we know TSA is prohibited from doing, but it seemed suspicious that TSA left cash in the photo of confiscated ammunition.

chollie

Supposedly TSA shouldn't confiscate nitro pills if they find them, either, but they have. There's no exemption on the website.

I don't see how it matters where or how the cash was found - in the 'same container' with the guns is no excuse. There's currently no prohibition on traveling through the checkpoint with cash, or having cash on one's person in public, and it presents no conceivable threat, ergo, there is no reason for TSA or LE to have kept it from the pax.

gsoltso

There is a quantifiable (and legal) difference between theft (which is what you are listing) and legal confiscation (which is when a LEO organization makes a seizure of funds in relation to some other crimes).

I only expect you to believe that I wanted clarification because I was uncertain what the person was referring to (as there was no cash confiscation mentioned in the post) - nothing more.

^

In many cases in the past, there have been accusations of theft/loss with regards to items/monies found - not saying that is the case here, just that it has happened many times in the past (and not just at TSA checkpoints). Many times LEOs will request the photo include everything found in a specific container for their (and any others involved) protection. When I worked as an MP, we would photo tons of things as we found them in order to make certain there was no confusion over just what was found. Again, not saying that is necessarily the case, just that is is a reasonable possible explanation of what may be going on in that photo. If I find out any other info on it, I will be certain to post it here for clarification - but I wouldn't be surprised if no other info is forthcoming, a search earlier had no hits on this in the news/blogs that I could find.

Caradoc

I am aware of that.

But the TSA's employees are well-known to ignore actual legal constraints. As such, I find it difficult to believe that they'll pay any more attention to "rules" than they do "laws."

Boggie Dog

Or cupcakes, purses, and no telling what else. And let us not forget that these wantabe jr. Gmen have interrogated people about checks they had and a cash box with political campaign funds. TSA has proven time and time again that airport security is not job #1.

Boggie Dog

Did TSA take down the photo showing the money?

Edit to add.

Never mind was looking at last weeks photo's.

gsoltso

Bob posted yesterday that he was not privvy to all the details in the pic with cash, but that TSA was not involved past finding the weapon in the bag, contacting local LEOs, and taking a pic when they showed up for incident report reasons (which is the normal procedure). What happened after that was under the purview of the local LEOs that took control of the weapon. So, no confiscation by TSA, and at this point, we have no further information about what happened after the item was turned over to LEOs (which is also the norm, as the incident report is about what led to the discovery and ends with the item being turned over to LEOs). I hope that helps to clear that up for anyone that was questioning about it.

Boggie Dog

The money was shown with the weapon. TSA confiscated the items.

gsoltso

All we can say with any certainty is that there was cash in the picture - anything else is speculation without factual ground underneath it.

chollie

So it's equally speculative on Bob's part, without factual ground underneath it, to assume the money wasn't confiscated.

The question Bob could have answered, and chose not to, is who gave the $ to LE? Who staged the photo with a gun, ammo and $?

Bob could have contacted the airport in question and actually researched this before responding. Instead, he chose to wordsmith TSA boilerplate as a reply - "TSA shouldn't do this, so they must not have done this, although I don't really know any more than anyone else looking at the picture, because I'm just speculating".

Spoken like a politician - but we all know how highly regarded politicians are, and how much the public trusts what they say.

The photo doesn't show the entire contents of the bag. It doesn't show the gun in situ. As in other pictures, the gun and any other contraband objects are removed, 'staged', and photographed. There may have been a towel around the gun, but unless the gun was photographed in place, the towel wouldn't be in the photo.

I wonder if Bob will ever address the issue of certain heart meds not being confiscated at the checkpoint if the screener chooses to read labels.

Carl Johnson

That's not true, every story does not have 3 sides. In many cases, one side is clearly right and one side is risible. That is true in the Armato case. And as an aside, it happened in early 2010, haven't you had enough time to get as much of all "3 sides" as possible?

Here's what happened:

The TSA clerks locked a passenger in a cage because in a previous encounter she had tried to get them to follow the breast milk screening rules.

They walked around for an hour ignoring her until she missed her flight.

Finally, they let her out of the cage and a manager talked to her, she tried to get him to read and follow the TSA's published rules but he wouldn't. She wound up having to sit and pour the milk into small separate containers.

Here's a response by Ms. Armato to the TSA's statement published after her false imprisonment:

http://www.sustainablemothering.com/.../#comment-1648

Excerpt:

So a WEEK after the incident, they had somebody shadow her, and this person had to intervene because the clerks STILL didn't want to follow the rules.

Is any part of the recounting of events false?

Can you point to any statement contradicting it?

What should have happened is all the clerks involved should have been arrested and the whole TSA operation in the airport should have been cleaned out and replaced, from the FSD on down. It's a corrupt organization. They weren't protecting aviation security, they weren't even furthering the goals of the agency. They were abusing a passenger in order to punish her for questioning their authority. That's corrupt - using one's position to further one's on personal objectives.

What else should happen is that Ms. Armato should be given about a million dollars and the government should sue the clerks involved to indemnify it.

Is there another side to that? In the ensuing almost 4 years, has anything come to light justifying locking Ms. Armato in a cage and then walking around doing nothing for an hour?

If not, what should happen to government employees who do something like that?