More than 30 baggage handlers at Miami International Airport have been arrested for theft since 2012 when authorities started hiding security cameras that revealed some handlers were rifling checked bags.
Airline passengers have lost as much as $2.5 million in property from 2010 to 2014,
according to The Daily Mail.
"The Miami-Dade Police Department set up a hidden camera to deal with the ongoing problem of luggage theft, and found workers rifling through checked bags both before they were loaded onto planes and once inside the aircraft's belly," wrote Chris Spargo, of the Daily Mail.
"Most shocking however may be how easy it is for airport employees to steal, with only Orlando and Miami screening employees through metal detectors as they arrive at work and only Miami screening them when they leave," wrote Spargo.
CNN reported that its own analysis of passenger property loss claims filed with the Transportation Security Administration show that passengers have filed 30,621 complaints of missing valuables, mostly packed in checked luggage from 2010 to 2014 nationwide.
"It's a problem we all face," Miami-Dade Police Department Lt. Pete Estis told CNN. "We will continue to be proactive until we can see that the claims of pilfering through luggage will actually decrease."
Baggage handling thefts are not unique to the United States, though.
The Moscow Times reported in March that six baggage handlers at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport in Russia were arrested on suspicion of stealing items from luggage of international passengers.
Stolen items included mobile phones and other gadgets, as well as expensive cosmetics, food and alcoholic drinks, authorities told the Moscow Times. The newspaper reported that the handlers focused on bags heading to Central Asia because it was believed those passengers would be less likely to complain to the authorities.
Also in March, a baggage handler in Dubai was sentenced to three months in jail for bag theft,
according to The National.
The convicted handler told the Dubai Criminal Court that he was on his shift for 10 hours straight and was only looking through the bags for food.
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