Sept. 06--Nine people who worked at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport were arrested after an investigation into stolen employee parking placards, airport officials said Friday.
Eight were employees of the Transportation Security Administration and one was an employee of American Eagle Airlines, according to a DFW news release.
The investigation began in March when American Eagle reported that 129 employee parking placards had been stolen from the airline's office in Terminal B.
The placards allow access to employee parking lots at the airport. TSA non-management employees pay $34 per a month for the placards, the news release said. That includes a parking space and shuttle service to terminals.
The investigation determined that some of the stolen placards were sold for $100 each to TSA employees, the news release said.
The American Eagle employee was fired, said officials for American Airlines, which owns American Eagle.
"American Eagle has a zero-tolerance policy for this type of activity," the American Eagle news release said. "The individual involved is no longer employed by American Eagle."
The TSA workers have been placed on unpaid "indefinite suspension," agency officials said.
"TSA does not tolerate any form of unethical or unlawful behavior by its employees and takes appropriate disciplinary action," according to a statement from the agency.
One of the TSA employees, who is accused of selling some of the placards to colleagues, faces a felony charge of theft of service. The American Eagle employee accused of originally stealing the placards faces a charge of misdemeanor theft.
Another TSA employee who is accused of multiple counts of theft of service faces a Class A misdemeanor charge.
The other six TSA employees are accused of using the placards without obtaining them properly. They face Class B misdemeanor theft of service charges.
Their names were not released because the investigation is still going on, according to the DFW news release.
Bill Miller, 817-390-7684 Twitter: @Bill_MillerST
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