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A baggage security check area at Syracuse's Hancock International Airport.

(David Lassman / The Post-Standard)

Syracuse, NY -- It's the job of Transportation Security Administration workers to catch passengers sneaking illegal items onto planes.

But a TSA supervisor was himself caught on videotape last month stealing 12 Tylenol pills from a passenger's luggage in Syracuse, according to a police report.

That same day, Supervisory Transportation Security Officer Jeremy Hemingway was either fired or resigned, according to an internal TSA email obtained by The Post-Standard.

Lisa Farbstein, a TSA spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., would not comment on the specifics of the case.

"The individual no longer works for TSA," Farbstein said. "TSA does not tolerate theft and TSA holds its employees to the highest ethical standards and has zero tolerance for misconduct in the workplace."

On March 27, a TSA employee notified supervisors that Hemingway had pulled a small piece of black luggage aside for searching about 5:40 a.m. at Hancock International Airport, the Syracuse police report said. There had been no security alarm that would've prompted a search, the report said.

TSA officials showed police a videotape of Hemingway in which he rummages through the luggage and appears to take something from it, according to the report, written by Syracuse police Detective Robert Wiegand.

Syracuse police officers went to the north baggage area, where Hemingway was working, the report said. At 10 a.m., they escorted him and all his belongings to an airport security office, where they told him he'd been caught on video, the report said.

Hemingway, 36, of Liverpool, confessed to stealing pills from the luggage, the report said. He said that while he searched the bag, he noticed a bottle of pills and removed some of them, the report said.

Hemingway told the officers he slipped the pills into his gloved hand then took the glove off, turning it inside-out with the pills inside, the report said. He then put the glove in his pocket.

When he took his next break, Hemingway threw the glove into an outside trash can near the parking garage, he told the officers. They retrieved the glove from the trash can and found 12 pills inside, Wiegand wrote. The pills were tested and found to be Tylenol, the report said.

The Post-Standard obtained the police report through a request under the state Freedom of Information Law.

Police did not charge Hemingway with petit larceny or any other crime because the owner of the luggage was unknown, so they had no identified victim, Sgt. Tom Connellan said.

TSA officials suspended Hemingway's electronic access that day, according to an email from a supervisor. By 1 pm. the same day, he was "separated" from TSA, according to an email. It didn't say whether he resigned or was fired.

Albert Adler, the acting federal security director in Syracuse, sent an email addressed to "All Hands" that day.

"We had a serious incident this morning in the North Baggage at SYR," the email said. "We are in the process of addressing this through the appropriate channels and systems. Please keep our focus on the mission and vision, and maintain the high standards of effectiveness and professionalism that we as a team demonstrate daily."

Hemingway, who was one of the supervisors of the 100 TSA screeners at Hancock, could not be reached for comment. He started working for TSA in 2004 or 2005, a TSA official said.

TSA officials would not disclose Hemingway's salary, but a federal jobs website says supervisory transportation security officers make between $44,931 and $69,617 a year.

Contact John O'Brien at jobrien@syracuse.com or 315-470-2187.

