CLEARWATER - Debra Sander is a frequent flyer who understands the importance of searching passengers' bags at airports. But she can't begin to fathom how someone screening her suitcase could have left a Security Administration uniform behind.
"My jaw dropped," she recalled. "I couldn't believe what was on there: patches for Homeland Security, TSA all over it, and then the name tag with the number."
Debra flew in on JetBlue from Newark to Tampa International. She believes -- at best -- the shirt was accidentally dropped into her bag by an irresponsible TSA security screener.
"At worst," she added, "it was someone trying to pass off a uniform to someone else, and they put it in the wrong piece of luggage."
Midway through his interview with Debra, Action News reporter Josh Talkington got a call from a TSA spokesperson who agreed to talk to Debra about her concerns.
But she told Debra her luggage wasn't searched by a TSA employee because there was no note left in her suitcase stating it was physically searched.
"I don't need a note because I have the biggest calling card in the world," Debra continued. "I have a 3X shirt."
The New Yorker can't help but think back to September 11th, and her friends and neighbors who were killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center. She wonders what could've happened if this uniform would've landed in the wrong hands.
"To see something like this when you don't want something like that happening again, it's a little scary," she observed.
So could someone pass as a TSA security screener simply by putting on the shirt and a pair of slacks and walking through the airport? TSA spokesperson Ann Davis told Action News, "that is impossible...they would have to have appropriate badging...you can't just pose as a TSA screener."
Debra says whomever rummaged through her luggage had a key that unlocked her lock. She says she's hoping -- despite no note from the TSA -- that it was an innocent mistake by a screener.
"Or, somebody has access to uniforms, keys, baggage, all the cargo," she worried.
Action News passed along the name and number from the uniform to the TSA. The agency said it plans a full investigation.
http://www.wfts.com/stories/2006/04/060418tsa.shtml
