Athens Airport Employee Stealing Passenger Luggage Since 2016

A ground crew employee at Athens International Airport has admitted to stealing valuables from the luggage, as well as entire pieces of luggage of passengers at least seventy times. Since 2016, he has been a continuous luggage thief.

Nobody was able to trace the stolen goods until a passenger who had her bag stolen and reported it missing tipped the authorities with a GPS signal from her set of wireless headphones. This tip led the police directly to the location of the 41-year-old suspect, who had stolen the luggage from the tourist.

When only one of the tourist’s two checked bags made it back to her home country, Israel, she filed a complaint with the authorities.

GPS traced the Athens Airport employee who was stealing

The GPS signal sent by the device directed police officers to the residence of the ground handler, located in the Peristeri neighborhood in western Athens.

During the course of the investigation, the person of interest, who works for a private company that provides ground staff, revealed he was the one who had taken the headphones.

He further acknowledged he stole a brand-new phone with a value of €1,549 in the same manner and gave the phone to his 39-year-old wife to keep and use. He confessed to having stolen belongings from at least seventy different pieces of luggage during the course of his career.

According to local media, he was working in the airport’s “Missing Items” area at the time of the incident.

Many more valuables the man had stolen from Athens Airport

During the search of the man’s residence, police discovered a variety of items. Among these were: pepper spray, nineteen portable audio playback speakers, forty-one external hard drives, thirty-five mobile phones, two computers, sixteen tablets, ninety-five USB sticks, and a digital camera.

There were also thirteen purses, forty-one wristwatches, forty-seven women’s handbags, twenty-three pairs of sunglasses, thirteen wallets, a hundred and fifty packs of cigarettes, forty-three cigars, and twenty-three packs of tobacco.

Jewelry, including rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and chains among other things, was also discovered at the employee’s residence.

Additionally, banknotes from Thailand, Lebanon, Iran, Ghana, Tanzania, Mexico, Malaysia, and Greece—in the form of drachmas—were found as were West African CFA francs.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the man and his wife were taken into custody.