Utah man passes airport security with stolen boarding pass
Source: AP
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) A man with a stolen boarding pass got through airport security in Salt Lake City and checked in at a gate for a flight to California before he was caught earlier this month, authorities have disclosed.
Michael Salata, 61, was arrested on Nov. 5 shortly after checking into a Southwest Airlines flight to Oakland, The Deseret News reported (http://bit.ly/1SmBXVy ) Wednesday.
Salata, who is on the sex offender registry in Utah, grabbed a boarding pass that a woman accidently left at a check-in kiosk and used it to get through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, said Craig Vargo, chief of airport police.
"He tried to make it seem like it was a mistake, that the boarding pass printed incorrectly, or that he grabbed the wrong boarding pass," Vargo told the newspaper.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/99a15126a4ec4b97a42c8b55f1433868/utah-man-passes-airport-security-stolen-boarding-pass
Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)rickford66
(5,498 posts)It would quickly become apparent that another person "owned" the ticket. What did he expect to accomplish? Maybe he wanted to buy some overpriced fast food?
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)and it was the airline that caught him.
TSA is a an enormous waste of time and money, and a joke. Its agents have been repeatedly caught stealing passenger goods, and 73 of them were hired depsite being on the Terrorist no fly list.
TSA has repeatedly failed to catch contraband items in Government inspection exercises.
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Have the government run this.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)...not private at all.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)After the government agents let him through.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)SLC Airport has issues. Got a hunch there is more to come on this. BTW,when this person went through Pre Screen,that boarding pass is recorded in their data base and time stamped with the TSO's I.D. at that time. Some one lost their job,you can count on it.
Earth_First
(14,910 posts)A simple mixup on our part, I had the wrong name on my boarding pass (same last name...)
The worst part about it was not the delay in getting to our gate, but it was the assumption by TSA/DHS that I was up to something nefarious.
It wasn't even TSA that approached me on it after gathering my things and on my way, it was a DHS suit-dummy.
TSA/DHS is one of the most ineffectual agencies giving us the illusion of security, all while someone makes a mint...
I'm making this same flight tomorrow morning...wish me luck!