You’ve got to wonder who is doing the interviewing for airport employees and do they even bother to do background checks…
Earlier in May there was news of baggage handlers getting arrested for transporting drugs at the airport. There has also been stories of theft at the airport. One instance that sticks it is that of a worker that stole over 1,400 mini-liquor bottles from AA planes!
In the most recent case of airport theft, two employees at JFK are accused of stealing a shipment of NBA star Kevin Durant’s newest line of Nike KD8 sneakers. Seriously…
The suspects, 23 year old Calvin Colain Nelson and 47 year old Audley Russell have been charged with fourth degree grand larceny and possession of stolen property. The duo was charged “for allegedly stealing, and trying to sell, Durant’s yet-to-be-released “KD8” sneakers, which were passing through JFK from a Nike factory in Taiwan on their way to Ontario, Canada” according to the Village Voice.
Now they didn’t choose any old pair of shoes to grab, they go for a $200 pair thay aren’t supposed to be in stores until July.
So how were the two with sticky fingers caught?
The manager for a freight company hired by Nike noticed that the shoes arrived on an Air China flight on May 9 but never made it to Canada. A shipping manager then found a few pairs of the missing shoes “for sale on Instagram with the factory box and serial numbers of some of the shoes visible“.
The Instagram account belongs to Nelson, a security guard at the airport. When questioned by Port Authority Police, he said that the sneakers were bought on May 10 from a dealer that he knew and had bought from in the past.
What was really odd was the potential profits from the theft. Nelson said he bought 9 pairs of the shoes for $2,475. That comes to $275 for each pair. He told police that he kept one pair for himself and sold the rest for between $135 and $300. If this was the case, there really wasn’t much money being made. Why do the crime?
Russell works at Cargo Building 76, one where the sneakers passed through when arriving from Taiwan. He claims a bag of sneakers were dropped off at his house. He says that the sneaker guy gave him $80 to $100 per pair and ” didn’t know how hot the sneakers were”. If he did, he “would have asked for more money“.
If convicted both men could be locked up for 4 years.
Find out more about the story here.
