New York Post screws up – TSA debunks scam-story

TSA says New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick made a mistake when he reported witnessing a TSA scam during a trip at the Newark airport. Phil writes:

Last month, Friday, Aug. 12, I was at Newark Airport scheduled to fly to Vancouver, British Columbia, with my wife and another couple, her cousins.

The line to pass through security was enormous, far beyond the point where the mazelike barriers feed passengers forward. The back of the line was extended deep down a long hallway. We got in it, and the long, slow post-9/11 airport shuffle began.

Suddenly, a small middle-aged woman wearing a TSA (Transportation Security Administration) uniform moved along that line, pushing a wheelchair while asking, in a thick non-English accent, if anyone was in need of her help.

Good old Phil should have been sceptical already. What’s a TSO doing, pushing a wheelchair along the line of passengers? Maybe he doesn’t travel a lot, and so he doesn’t know how things work at an airport?

Anyway, Phil goes on:

We talked/dared Rich, my wife’s first cousin, to sit in the chair. He balked, but then went along with it.

Zoom. Off we went, the four of us, circumventing roughly an hour’s shuffle line, until we reached the screening stations. Along the way, the woman in the TSA uniform said in her broken English, “I take care of you; you take care of me.”

As suspected. She was working a hustle.

When we arrived at the screeners’ positions, Rich arose, suddenly and magically cured of his affliction. The uniformed TSA and NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) men and women working this stop didn’t seem to think anything of it. They seemed familiar with this woman as they allowed her to provide us the next position through the nearest scanner.

I reached into my pocket, selected a $5 bill from a fold, and conspicuously handed it to her. No moderately alert TSA or NTSB uniformed personnel in the vicinity could have missed it. It was clear: I was paying off a uniformed TSA worker officer for privileged access.

Everyone nearby in uniform seemed to know the score.

So, Phil talks his wife’s cousin into going along with something he suspects is a hustle. That’s nice. Aiding and abetting, anyone? This should have been a few more clues for Phil to ponder over, however. Broken English, huh? The TSA actually has pretty strict rules when it comes to English-skills. Uniformed TSA and NTSB personnel didn’t react to it – this could mean that it’s actually normal…no? That’s because it is.

Phil, it was a skycap, for pete’s sake. You stumbled onto a helpful person, who lives off the tips her job gets her. That’s why no one reacted to you paying her, that’s why the TSOs didn’t say anything or think anything of it. Because it is a legitimate airport service. Considering that there may have been people that really needed that wheelchair in the line, old Phil may have been doing more harm than just embarrassing himself. SecurityManagement also picked up on the story:

Which leads one to ask, why did Mushnick get mad that he was expected to tip, but didn’t feel bad using services obviously designated for people with disabilities?

A call to Mushnick by Security Management was not immediately returned.

Phil must have been homing in on the fact that he screwed up…

The TSA published their own reply:

I and others more familiar with airports and checkpoint security instantly knew this wasn’t a TSO, but to be sure, we reviewed the video. What we found was that the person he wrote about was a skycap. Skycaps are porters who assist passengers, some often in wheelchairs. They work for tips and their uniforms do not resemble those of a TSO. In fact, many skycaps wear hats as TSOs do not.

The NY Post had not commented or retracted Phil’s blunder when this was published.