TSA Watch

Billions of tax dollars have been spent to make you feel safer when flying but a bizarre incident at Newark Liberty International Airport has one frequent flier questioning the integrity of some of the people paid to keep travelers safe.

Jeff Holzman says he was on a trip to Florida when he was trying to get to Gate C-1.  Holzman was wearing a $1,000 Tag Heuer watch.  He was asked to take it off to go through security.  Holzman says he's never been asked to take it off.

He says he took off the watch put it in the circular container put it on the belt to go through the security screening device.  That was the last Jeff would ever see of his watch.  He says it never showed up on the other side of the conveyer belt.  Holtman says he immediately told the TSA agents that his watch was gone.

But he says he went from being a victim to a suspect, accused by a TSA supervisor of making up a bizarre story.

Holzman claims the supervisor accused him of taking a watch putting it in his pocket and then filing a false report.

He says he was detained, accused of stealing his own watch.

The Port Authority Police looked at the video tape and told Holzman that he was off the hook.  There was no tape of him taking his own watch.
.
In fact, PA cops eventually identified and arrested Gregorio Rodriguez for the theft of the watch.  He worked for a cleaning company at the airport.

When contacted for this Fox 5 report, the TSA said that Holzman was not accused of stealing his own watch.

Jeff never got his watch back. In addition to the hassle at security, Jeff said he missed his flight, missed a business meeting and had to pay $350 to take a taxi from Orlando to Jacksonville. The TSA says Supervisor Johnson is a good employee without any reported incidents with passengers after seven years on the job.

"TSA interviewed our Supervisor upon receipt of Mr. Holzman's complaint. The Supervisor's account of his July 29th exchange with Mr. Holzman differs quite dramatically from the account detailed by Mr. Holzman. Given the Supervisor has screened hundreds of thousands of passengers in his 7 years with TSA and has never had any complaints filed against him, we have every reason to believe our Supervisor's account is credible."

~ Ann Davis, TSA Spokesperson

As always, John welcomes your comments on this story. CLICK HERE TO POST YOUR COMMENTS.