SF airport workers have been stealing from enlisted personnel in Japan.

Dipsticks. I'm guessing they never had friends or family in the military. Or else, send 'em to Gitmo, as far as I'm concerned.

The San Mateo Times has more:

SAN FRANCISCO — Fifteen airport cargo handlers have pleaded guilty to charges of stealing items being mailed to military personnel stationed in Okinawa, Japan, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Nearly 600 incidents of theft were reported since November 2003 with an estimated $200,000 in losses. U.S. Postal Inspectors and military criminal investigators noted suspicious behavior among cargo handlers employed by Aeroground at San Francisco International Airport.

Kevin Ryan, the U.S. attorney for Northern California, said the 15 defendants pleaded guilty during the last two weeks and the final defendant entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in San Francisco yesterday morning. The contents of the parcels and their value were listed on customs declaration forms. The defendants allegedly read the forms to decide which items to steal. Workers concealed merchandise under their clothing and took it to their vehicles in an adjoining parking lot, according to court documents.

Stolen items included laptop computers, DVD players, jewelry, Victoria’s Secret merchandise and digital cameras. After items were removed, the packages were retaped and sent to Okinawa. A 16th and final defendant is believed hiding in the Philippines, prosecutors said. The defendants face a maximum five-year prison sentence each. The pleas were taken over two weeks, ending Tuesday, authorities said.

Things used to always "fall off trucks" coming out of JFK airport near NYC. This seems more of the same.

I still remember trying to import 9 or 10 bottles of the great, bright green, tart-sweet Rives kiwi extract from Spain - it was out there, everywhere, from Cordoba to Gibraltar - during my honeymoon in Spain in '87. Arriving back at O'Hare, the box we'd put together at a Madrid department store before returning State-side had several bottles missing, and another few cracked. Union tax? Import duty? Dunno, but that episode has stuck with me. And this was just a mixer. Not as tho it were something, like, aaah, Slivovitz.

TECHNORATI TAGS: SAN FRANCISCO, AIRPORT, THEFT, JAPAN, OKINAWA, SPAIN, RIVES KIWI

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Posted by Matt Rosenberg at November 30, 2005 08:27 PM