Man claims cellphone was taken at Charlotte airport

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Summertime travel kicks off this weekend and one traveler has a warning for anyone planning on flying. Keep a close eye on your cell phone when you’re going through security check points. It may seem like common-sense, but a Charlotte resident learned the hard way and nearly lost hundreds of dollars.

For Anne and Carl Obeck it was supposed to be a quick trip to Philadelphia, but it turned into a 72 hour travel nightmare. The Obeck’s are amongst millions flying this travel season. This past Friday they flew out of the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. read more Charlotte-Douglas Airport lost and found Charlotte-Douglas Airport lost property

“I went through the body scan and they discovered I had something in my pocket,” said Carl.

It was his iPhone 6s. The Transportation Security Agency took the phone and placed it in a separate bin. After Carl got through security, he accidentally left his $600 phone behind.

‘We searched around the belt where we came in and looked through the bins and they said it would possibly show up in the lost and found,” said Anne, Carl’s wife.

Carl and Anne checked with lost and found. They had no luck. At first TSA was giving them the run around.

“You can call this number and tell them the flight the time etc.,” said Carl. “Describe what you were wearing and they’ll go through the footage.”

Less than an hour after Carl called TSA with his complaint the company figured out who took his phone.

https://twitter.com/xmanwalton/status/735304060799160321

“They didn’t have it in lost and found, but all of the sudden they had it on the third floor,” said Carl. “That made me think it was internal.”

NBC Charlotte did a little digging. In 2014, a TSA supervisor at Charlotte-Douglas International was fired for allegedly stealing things travelers left behind at checkpoints. Last year, a TSA worker at the airport was also fired for stealing cash from a checked bag.

“Sort of alluded to me at least in my mind it was maybe the fellow that took my phone was a TSA agent, but he did say anything he just said that the person that took it made a mistake and returned it,” said Carl.