(Newser)
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A former TSA screener has advice for America's travelers: Watch your bags. Pythias Brown, who just served three years for stealing from people's luggage, says such thieving is typical. "It was so easy," he tells the Daily News. "One day I walked out of there with the video game, the Nintendo Wii. I walked right out of the checkpoint with the Nintendo Wii in my hand." What's more, he says, TSA agents brashly steal from bags while travelers go through screenings.
The TSA says it has fired almost 400 officers for thieving since 2003, but according to Brown, that could be a drop in the ocean—because robbery "was very commonplace. Very." TSA agents who steal have ways of justifying it, too, like "they aren't paying me, they're treating me wrong." Brown has confessed to taking more than $800,000 in electronics, clothing, and cash during his four years working at Newark's international airport.
