Baggage Handler Steals Firearms In Austin Airport
BY Herschel Smith
7 years, 8 months ago
Austin police announced on Wednesday they have made two additional arrests in connection with an Austin airport baggage handler who was stealing handguns from baggage that he sometimes traded for marijuana, police and the Justice Department said.
Austin police have charged Matthew Bartlett, 21, and Catronn Hewitt, 36, with felony possession of marijuana, police said in a news release.
Ja’Quan Johnson, 25, was charged with federal charges in connection with the thefts. Johnson is a contract baggage handler at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and is believed to have been behind the thefts, according to police and the Justice Department.
On Feb. 3, police recovered seven stolen firearms and seized an unspecified amount of illegal drugs in warranted searches, which led to the arrests of Bartlett and Hewitt.
Damn. Come on guys. This is just unacceptable and you shouldn’t tolerate such things among your employees. Hire better and more honest workers. We all pay for this sort of thing with our insurance. Besides, it’s unlikely that with the deductible anybody’s going to get full replacement costs.
Here’s the asshole.
On March 2, 2017 at 2:43 am, DAN III said:
Mr. Smith,
“Hire better and more honest workers.”
Better ? No way. Honest ? Maybe. And here is why workers like Johnson will continue to be a problem….the Statesman excerpt tells me all I need to know:
“Johnson is a CONTRACT baggage handler….”.
My brother worked as a defense department contractor for 12 years. in the course of those years the contract holder changed three (3) times. Each time the contract changed the salary went down. The last straw for him was his recent contract renewal dropping his salary 20% and requiring him to sign an agreement to do more for less. Enough was enough and he told the employer to go fuck himself.
In the course of his 12 year contractor career his wages were cut 40% ! Never once was there a pay raise. Just pay reductions. And THAT is why saving a buck to pay abysmal wages with little or no benefits, via the growing, domestic “contractor” industry, will never provide better and more honest workers.
Here’s an axiom or two applicable to the contractor industry:
“You get what you pay for.”
“Your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.”
The future for folks and their children in this former USA is dim.
On March 2, 2017 at 10:50 am, Frank Clarke said:
There are several levels of ‘solution’ to this problem.
1 – the airPORT operator must be –criminally– liable for such events. This is the very least that ought be done.
2 – (if ‘1’) baggage known to contain valuables (guns, jewelry, secret government documents, etc) must be handled in an entirely separate stream under hefty surveillance. Eventually this would be the ONLY stream.
3 – (solves all above) anything valuable should be in carry-on luggage or on one’s person — including guns.
On March 2, 2017 at 10:58 am, Herschel Smith said:
I like your third solution. It will never happen.
On March 2, 2017 at 11:11 am, Fred said:
But he looks like such a nice boy.
On March 2, 2017 at 11:22 am, Archer said:
Former President Obama: “If I had a son, he would look like….”