The TSA and the Watch Theft Controversy

MYFOXNY.COM - Another brazen crime committed at an airport security checkpoint. This time the victim is an NYPD detective, and he charges Transportation Security Administration agents were way too slow in reporting it to the cops.

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Holiday travel plans were messed up for hours at Newark Airport after a man snuck through an airport exit into a secure area. The TSA waited 80 minutes to call the cops. The TSA claimed they weren't sure there was an actual intrusion. A passenger tipped them off. The TSA agent missed it. Cameras were broken. It took a while to verify that they had a problem.

So does the TSA have a problem when it comes to calling the cops? In one case, there was a delay of an hour and 20 minutes in that fiasco at Newark.

Then at Kennedy Airport, a cop who became a crime victim is now accusing the TSA of taking their sweet time calling police. His problems started at the security gate.

"He tells me 'take off the watch just like that... not sir could you please take off the watch take off the watch'," says Devon Freed, an NYPD detective, of a TSA worker.

He had a $5,000 watch stolen from him at the JetBlue security area. He said the watch set off the metal detector and he handed it over to a TSA agent.

"I walk through the machine the machine doesn't go off," Freed says. "I immediately extend my hand to get the watch back at which point he says to me 'no the watch has to go through the screening process, go through the x-ray machine on the conveyor belt,' which didn't make sense. He took the watch separately and put it into its own individual bowl and not only did he not put it with the rest of my stuff, he put it behind the next family that was behind me."

It would be the last time the detective would ever see his $5,000 watch. He says it was crowded, he was traveling with his 6-year-old daughter, and was being rushed through the line.

"As I scoop up all of my stuff, I scoop up my daughter I go to the end of the conveyer belt start to put might stuff together put her sneakers on and I freely admit that I walked off for about three minutes," Freed says. "After walking off I realized the fact that I don't have my watch. Frantic for a second, I go through my stuff for a minute or so, scoop up my daughter under my arm, and I go racing back to the TSA security gate."

Then Freed says he had to deal with a TSA supervisor who made him feel like the bad guy.

"After fifteen or twenty minutes, he says 'We're going to have to review the tape,' and I'm like 'I don't understand why don't you notify the Port Authority police.'" Freed says the supervisor told him "Well we have to make sure a theft has occurred."

"He's assuming I'm lying which makes no sense, because I have a flight to catch and I'm traveling with a 6-year-old girl," Freed says. "I identified myself to who I am, I admit that I am also in law enforcement and he still has made no notification to Port Authority police."

Keep in mind, the TSA's job is to be on the lookout for bombs and terrorists, but when a crime occurs that's the jurisdiction of the Port Authority police. They are supposed to be called immediately because TSA agents are not real cops.

"They're not believing that a theft went on… let's not even say a theft, a loss went on they're not believing it, they want to confirm it through video," Freed says. "It was absolutely my impression that they felt that I was making it up."

Now if Freed's story sounds familiar, you might have seen Fox 5's story in November about Jeff Holzman . Last summer Jeff had his $1,000 watch stolen from the security area at Newark Airport. He says a TSA supervisor accused him of stealing his own watch.

According to Holzman, the agent said: "I have a tape that shows you taking your own watch."

"He clearly accuses me of taking a watch, putting it in my pocket, and filing a false report, and he says to me I'm now not free to leave because the Port Authority police are coming to deal with me," Holzman says.

The TSA denies they accused Holzman of stealing his own watch. Jeff says the Port Authority cops looked at the video and told him it showed someone else stealing it. That man was arrested. His name is Gregorio Rodriguez. He worked for a cleaning company at the airport and apparently had access to the security area. Rodriguez pled not guilty to the theft and his case is in court.

Back to Detective Freed and his dilemma at JFK.

"We missed the flight, the gates are locked," Freed says. He then ran into two Port Authority cops. "They asked me 'Why did you miss your flight?' and I go on to tell them the story, at which point they say to me 'We never got a notification, this is our post if there would have been a theft, a larceny, or a loss, we would have been notified.' At this point we are an hour and a half into the initial report."

Devon says the first time the cops were notified was when a TSA supervisor walked up to the