U.S. Customs officer stole $100 bills

by 8DonCo Sat Apr 20, 2019 9:33 am

U.S. Customs officer stole $100 bills while searching passenger handbags at JFK, feds say

A U.S. Customs officer stole cash from at least 100 passengers at Kennedy Airport while searching their handbags, federal authorities allege.

Joseph Cialone, 39, admitted he targeted “deep handbags” when he searched international fliers because it was easier to hide his hands as he snatched $100 bills and shoved them into his latex gloves, according to a criminal complaint.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents first learned of his thievery on March 26, when a woman on a Jet Blue flight from Trinidad and Tobago on March 26 noticed an envelope in her bag was light on cash, authorities said. She stuffed it with $350, but found just $250 after she went through a customs inspection, prosecutors said.

She filed a complaint the next day, and surveillance footage showed Cialone pull out the envelope and put it back into her handbag. As he continued searching the satchel, he took his hand out in a closed fist, shed the the latex glove and stash it in his pocket. After he finished the inspection, he headed toward the bathroom, the complaint alleges.

Agents with Customs’ Office of Professional responsibility started looking at more video, and realized he probably ran the same scam on 11 more women between March 17 and April 16.
The agents watched Thursday as he stole two more $100 bills using the same latex glove trick, and when they pulled him into a private room, he admitted to at least 100 thefts over the past year.
Cialone, of East Meadow, L.I., was released Thursday on a $50,000 bond.
He didn’t return a message seeking comment Thursday, and his lawyer, Richard Rosenberg, declined comment.