TSA Agent Steals $5K During JFK Security Screen

By Andrew Chow, Esq. on February 05, 2012 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

An airport security screener's alleged departure from procedure will soon lead to her arrival in court. The TSA agent stole $5,000 from a passenger at New York's JFK airport in a brazen crime caught on tape, police say.

TSA agent Alexandra Schmid, 31, of Brooklyn, faces a charge of grand larceny, the New York Post reports.

Police arrested Schmid after a passenger complained that $5,000 was missing from his jacket Wednesday night. The passenger had placed the jacket on an X-ray machine conveyor belt for screening, the Post reports.

A check of the airport's surveillance-camera video revealed the alleged culprit.

Cameras caught TSA agent Alexandra Schmid allegedly stealing the $5,000 from the passenger's jacket, wrapping the money inside a latex glove, and then taking the cash-filled glove to a nearby restroom.

The money has not been recovered, the Associated Press reports. Schmid may have handed the $5,000 to an accomplice inside the restroom, police told the AP.

Schmid was arrested in connection with grand larceny, another term for theft. Larceny requires taking something of value without the owner's consent, with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of the property.

"Grand" or "petty" larceny refers to the stolen property's value. In Schmid's case, her alleged $5,000 theft amounts to a third-degree felony under New York's criminal laws.

If convicted, Schmid could be sentenced to prison and forced to pay a fine of twice the amount taken, according to New York laws.

It also likely doesn't matter that police have not found the $5,000 the TSA agent allegedly stole. The tape that caught Alexandra Schmid allegedly taking the cash should suffice to show an intentional taking.

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