Missing iPad tracked to home of TSA agent after TV sting...who then blamed his wife for taking it



The beleaguered TSA has suffered fresh embarrassment after one of its officers was caught red handed with a missing iPad intentionally left behind two weeks before at a security checkpoint as part of a sting operation.



The $600 Apple gadget was one of ten left purposely unattended at ten major U.S. airports this month as part of an ABC News investigation into ongoing theft from passengers by TSA officers.



Tracked 30-miles from Orlando airport using an iPad locator app, TSA officer Andy Ramirez at first denied having the device but eventually handed it over and blamed his wife for taking it.

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Using an app designed to track missing iPads ABC News traveled to the home of TSA officer Andy Ramirez in Orlando, Florida

Despite denying that theft is a major problem, the TSA fired 381 officers between 2003 and 2012 for stealing from the public but claims that number 'represents less than one-half of one percent of officers that have been employed.'



Seeking to investigate whether theft was a common occurrence and problem within the unpopular agency, ABC News loaded luggage filled with cash and an iPad and put them through security in a test.

The iPads were intentionally left behind at security checkpoints and the cash left in luggage which was destined for the airplane hold.



All ten bags filled with cash were untouched and nine out of ten iPads were returned to the owner as per agency guidelines after the investigative team left prominent names and phone numbers on the iPad case.

While talking with the ABC News reporter Ramirez was repeatedly asked about an iPad which had been intentionally left behind at a security checkpoint 15 days earlier

After the reporter activated an onboard alarm on the iPad Ramirez returned inside for a while and then re-emerged having changed from his TSA uniform and said that his wife had taken the Apple device

Mrs Ramirez was made by her husband to hand over the iPad to ABC News

However, in Orlando, the iPad was not returned and two hours after it had been left, its tracking application showed the device had moved 30-away to an address in a suburb of Orlando.



The ABC News investigation team gave TSA officer Ramirez 15 days to return the iPad and then traveled to his home to confront him about the missing iPad.



The television crew met the officer outside his house on his way to work and at first he denied knowing anything about the missing iPad and said that anything left behind at security checkpoints were taken to lost and found.



Despite lodging a missing item report to the airport 15-days previously, no iPad had been returned to the crew and the airport confirmed that there was no iPad that matched the serial number in lost and found.

TSA officer Andy Ramirez is seen in grainy ABC News footage to handle an iPad intentionally left behind at a security checkpoint to test employee honesty

The ABC News crew then told Ramirez they were going to activate an on-board audio alarm and the officer then disappeared into his home.



He emerged moments later holding the iPad in question, with his wife, having changed out of his TSA uniform.



'I'm so embarrassed,' he told ABC News. 'My wife says she got the iPad and brought it home.



When told that it was impossible for his wife to have brought it home because secret ABC News footage showed him to be the last person to handle the device, Ramirez shut the door and did not respond to any further questions.

ABC News conducted an investigation in which 10 iPads were intentionally left behind at security checks in 10 major U.S. airports

When confronted with the investigation, the TSA said that Ramirez was no longer with the agency as of yesterday afternoon and in a statement said the agency has 'a zero-tolerance policy for theft and terminates any employee who is determined to have stolen from a passenger.'



'This is the tip of the iceberg,' said Congressman John Mica of Florida, who is chair of the House Transportation Committee and a critic of the TSA.



'It is an outrage to the public, and actually to our aviation system.'



This year has seen a spate of complaints against the TSA.



In April four-year-old Isabella Brademeyer was accused of handing her grandmother a gun by TSA officers after excitedly hugging her during a security scanner.



And in June a TSA agent spilled the ashes of a Florida man's late grandfather after insisting on opening the jar containing his remains.

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