Airport employee charged with firearms theft

An airport worker in the US state of Minnesota has been charged with stealing firearms and other high-priced items from passengers, after surveillance cameras caught him in the act.

23 year-old David Vang has been charged with stealing shotguns, revolvers and other weapons from the checked luggage of passengers who travelled through the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, authorities said on Monday.

Police set up surveillance cameras since last September, showing that Vang removed items including iPads, laptops, mobile phones, jewelry and other electronics from checked baggage.

“In this case, only connecting bags were being pilfered,” said Pat Hogan, with the Metropolitan Airports Commission, adding that “weapons were scanned as coming into (Minneapolis-St. Paul) but not scanned as going into the aircraft, so that’s what alerted us that there was an issue here.”

Police turned up over 700 stolen items from Vang’s apartment, valued at more than USD 84,000. He admitted to stealing the items, saying he had been doing it since last summer.

Vang was arrested in October, with his first court appearance scheduled for April 25. He faces 11 felony counts, including 10 counts of theft of a firearm.

This latest incident raised concerns in the US over the issue of gun violence.

Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot and killed in the United States. This is while about 4.5 million firearms are sold annually in the country at a cost of two to three billion dollars.