An airport security official who was suspended after allegedly stealing money worth $300 from a passenger and eating it has claimed she was just eating some chocolate.
On 8 September, a passenger travelling through the Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the Philippines claimed that after his bag was checked, he opened his wallet and discovered his money was missing.
The passenger, named Mr Cai, had been going through the airport at around 8:20pm and a shoulder bag he'd been carrying had been checked by an Office of Transportation Security (OTS) official.
However, upon checking that everything was still in the bag, he claimed that money worth around $300 was missing since the baggage check.
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An investigation into the allegations of missing money has resulted in the suspension of a security official at the airport as she was accused of stealing the money due to CCTV footage appearing to show her eating what authorities now believe to have been bills.
Security footage shows a member of airport staff putting things into their mouth before taking several swigs of water to wash down whatever they'd just been eating.
According to a statement from the OTS they said they launched an investigation after Mr Cai claimed that some of his money was missing.
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They said: "Upon receipt of the information about the recent allegations of theft involving a Security Screening Officer (SSO) at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1, where a cash amounting to three hundred (300) US dollars went missing, the Office for Transportation Security (OTS) took actions to validate the information and launch its fact-finding investigation."
According to the Philippine Star, the security official has denied the claims that she ate a passenger's money, having submitted an affidavit claiming that what CCTV saw her eating was chocolate.
The investigators have indicated that they doubt those claims as OTS Administrator Mao Aplasca argued that it was 'not normal to eat chocolate like that' and claimed that someone eating chocolate wouldn't need to wash it down with water.
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The security official has not been arrested, as according to Aplasca they can't because she wasn't caught while stealing the money.
Mr Cai has not filed charges against the suspended security officer, while the investigation into the potentially eaten money which may or may not have been chocolate will also look at 14 other airport staff members.
Along with the officer who was caught on CCTV eating something, their supervisor and another member of staff who gave them a bottle of water have also been suspended.
UNILAD has contacted the MIAA and OTS for additional comment.
Topics: World News, Crime, Money, Travel
Joe Harker