The woman, who reportedly lost US$2,300 after a security check at the airport, has returned to Guyana and has been in touch with the police who have resumed their investigations into the matter.

Lost US$2,300 after a security check

Annie Bacchus, who has been travelling to the United States for over 17 years, was never searched the way she was on April 28 and believes she was deliberately distracted by the skilful tactics of the security guard who she alleged subsequently stole her money.

Speaking with this newspaper on Monday, Bacchus said she was convinced that a CANU officer and the security officer colluded to steal the money from her bag.

Following the incident and it being highlighted in this newspaper, the CANU officer who acted outside her mandate and counted the woman's money was sent off the job.

  Cop stole Stole Euros 300, US$1,200, and G$150,000,

The guard, attached to the Secure Innovations and Concepts has been put to perform other duties but is still employed by the company.

Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee had publicised the CANU officer's dismissal at a press conference stating that CANU officers had no mandate to search for money. "Their job is to search for drugs and interdict," the minister had said.

Bacchus told this newspaper on Monday that she knew it was unusual for the CANU officer to count her cash but allowed her since she was not sure whether additional measures had been put in place for Cricket World Cup. It was at this checkpoint, she said, that US$100 went missing. But the CANU officer counted the cash again and insisted that there were 43 US 100 dollar bills instead of the 44, which Bacchus said she and her husband had counted the night before.

I put back the rubber band on the cash and then closed my bag and was sitting and allowing others to board the aircraft because of pains I get in my legs from standing too long," she said.

She added that it was when she was about to board the plane that an officer (whose name she mentioned), from the Secure Innovations and Concepts approached her and told her that she would have to be searched as part of a random check that was done from time to time. "I didn't ask any questions and I allowed her to search. The amazing thing is that she made me open everything while her hands were still in my bag, but even then I didn't realize that this girl was taking my money," she said.

The woman said the money was wrapped in a paper, which stated how many bills were there along with an estimate for a piece of equipment she was going to pay for in the US.

She also had a small purse with jewellery in it, an IPod, a video camera and a cellular phone.

She said the officer insisted that she turn on and off her cell phone three times and even asked her what the IPod was used for.

According to her, the guard also came across a calculator in her handbag and asked her to open it so she could see the batteries. She said she told the officer there was no way she could open the calculator since she did not have a screwdriver.

"She told me to put on the camera and I followed her instructions and while I was busy doing all she told me to her hands were still in my handbag. … [She] managed to take 23 of the one hundred dollar bills."

Bacchus, who said she was traumatized over the incident, recalled that the security officer, who was wearing a jacket at the time, put her hand in the area of her waist and back.

"So I asked her if she had a problem with her back and she just told me that I should hurry up because her supervisor was watching and that she needed to go to the washroom," Bacchus recounted.

She said she placed her items back into her bag and the officer whisked off to the bathroom.

Bacchus said she proceeded to the plane and told the first cabin member she saw that she suspected her money had been stolen, hoping though that this was not so.

"As soon as I glanced at the money I realized it seemed shifted and then I counted it, realized only 21 one hundred US dollar bills were there. I alerted an airhostess and we went back."

She said a minister of the government who was also on the flight told her the airport cameras would be able to pick up exactly who stole her money.

According to Bacchus, when the alarm was raised and the woman was confronted in the presence of her supervisors, she told Bacchus to search her. Bacchus said the woman accused her of having spent out her money and blaming her wrongfully.

But Bacchus said the woman she told the woman, "I will not search you because you don't have on the jacket you were wearing when you searched me."

In order to convince those present that she had more money in her possession up to the time when she was checked, she asked them to contact the CANU officer, who had counted her money previously. However, they refused to call the CANU officer.

Another CANU officer then volunteered to find her, but his search was unsuccessful. The woman (whose name she called) was nowhere to be found.

Bacchus said she felt too the women had conspired to take her money since when the security officer approach-ed her for the random check she immediately asked her if she had declared her money.

"So it had to be that the two of them had communicated because there was now way that she could have just figured that I had money, and even more so, money to declare," she insisted.

Bacchus said she was aware that it was probably impossible for her to get back the cash she lost. She said she was still trying to cope with the incident, which was the first she had ever gone through since she has been travelling back and forth since 1991 to undergo medical treatment overseas.

The woman admitted too that she should have been more vigilant during the searches.

She said her experience has reached Guyanese living in New York who are now more apprehensive about returning home.

"Some people are scared to come home but in light of the fact that some amount of action was taken, some will come with a better frame of mind," she said.

Coupled with the action taken against the two employees whose names have been called in this incident two other workers at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri were sacked for demanding money from passengers in two separate incidents.

CJIA's Chief Executive Officer Ramesh Ghir was contacted by this newspaper and asked whether measures would be put in place in the light of Bacchus's allegations levelled against a worker of one of the airport's security operators.

A statement from the CJIA's management had stated that on May 15 this year, one of the employees of a private security firm demanded money from a passenger who was carrying frozen fish in his suitcase. The passenger complained to another security officer and the allegation was immediately investigated and found to be true. The money was retrieved and returned to the passenger before the flight departed and the services of the guilty employee were terminated with immediate effect. In another incident, the statement said, an employee of one of the ground handling companies was dismissed after demanding money from an arriving passenger.

The airport's management said these irregular activities and other forms of corruption would not be tolerated and urged that any such reports should be immediately forwarded to the CJIA or the police for investigation and necessary action.

Meanwhile, Ghir told Stabroek News that management was definitely taking a closer look at security and noted too that a meeting was recently held with all the airport's operatives where it was re-emphasised that they would have to be more vigilant. He made it clear too that soliciting money from passengers was totally unacceptable, hence the airport management's move towards immediate dismissal in this regard.

Now that Bacchus has returned, the Criminal Investigation Department is to resume its investigations into the matter.