Bacchus: 'I think security at the airport stinks. And I believe they targeting green card holders because they figure that these people won't come back'
A man whose wife says she lost US$2300 from her handbag during a security check at the airport says that the head of that security service changed his version of the story when he spoke to this newspaper.
Kamrul Bacchus, the husband of Annie Bacchus, told Stabroek News (SN) on Thursday that he was surprised to read the SN article in which Harold Hopkinson, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Secure Innovation and Concepts said the video tape revealed no suspicious behaviour by the woman who searched Annie Bacchus's bag.
"He told me he would view the tape and so I was in constant contact with him. After he saw the tape he told me that he saw the officer moving her hands into my wife's bag and close to her body in the region of her waist and back," Bacchus told this newspaper.
He said Hopkinson also told him that while he saw these hand movements by his security officer, he saw no signs of cash being removed from the bag.
"So why is he changing his story around now, when he knows he told me that?" he asked. Bacchus said he was told that the security officer left the counter just after she checked his wife's bag and headed towards the washroom which was later checked, according to Hopkinson, and nothing was found.
Contacted to respond to the accusation made by Bacchus, Hopkinson maintained his stance on the issue. "I could not say what I did not see, what I told you is what I saw," he told this reporter.
He denied ever telling Bacchus he saw the officer moving her hand from the woman's bag to his waist area. The police may be interested in the tape as part of their investigations.
Bacchus also denied that his wife requested help to check the cash on the Caribbean Airlines plane. Hopkinson had suggested that the woman's money could have gone missing then.
"That is a blatant lie," Bacchus said. "My wife is not stupid, she was the last person to go on the plane because she was not feeling well and so she allowed others to go on the plane and so she was about the last person to be checked for that particular flight," he added.
The man said while he knew there was no hope of recovering the money; he wanted to expose some of the illegalities he believes are ongoing at the port of entry.
"I think security at the airport stinks. And I believe they targeting green card holders because they figure that these people won't come back," the man said. When Hopkinson was first contacted for a comment on the matter, which was raised in a letter published in the Tuesday May 1 letters column, he said once he had learnt of it on the morning of April 28, 2007 he ordered searches on the person of the officer implicated, the washroom she went into and conducted searches on other officers of his company at the gate, but nothing was recovered.
According to Hopkinson, even as workers were about to leave at the end of the shift for that day he requested that all of them return to the office where a search was conducted on each of them but nothing was found.
He had said too that he conducted his private investigation which showed there was no sign that his employee had stolen the woman's money.
Further, Hopkinson said those investigations had revealed too that the woman's money was checked and counted by a CANU officer before she was checked by his officer, at which point she had discovered one of the hundred dollar bills missing.
Hopkinson told Stabroek News that he has since reviewed the video tape of operations for that day and found no suspicious behaviour by the young woman who searched Bacchus's bag.
He said the camera faced the officer and there was no sign that the officer could have taken the money unless the woman "fell asleep while her bag was being searched".
"There is no way that one could have taken that money from her from a set of US 100 dollar bills wrapped in rubber band while she was wide awake," Hopkinson asserted adding that the video showed clearly the woman watching attentively as her bag was searched.
"It was about 15 minutes after she went on the plane she came back with an airhostess and we learnt that some person on the plane helped her count her money and there's a possibility it could have gone missing at that point as well," he said.
The man said he is satisfied with his investigations and found nothing incriminating against his staff but Bacchus said he is convinced that Hopkinson changed his story since the spotlight has been placed on the company.
Annie Bacchus, in a letter to Stabroek News which was carried in the May 1 edition, said she discovered the money missing after she had cleared all the security checkpoints and was already on board a Caribbean Airlines flight destined for Miami.
In her letter Annie Bacchus said on the morning of April 28, 2007, after her shoulder bag was scanned by a CANU officer, whose name she provided, the officer enquired about the money she had in her possession which was US$9,683. The woman said she had 44 US$100 bills but after counting the money the officer told her there were only 43. At boarding time an officer from the security company checked her bag placing both hands in it.
"I told her I want to hold my money but she said the other passengers will see it. I told her that is not a problem for me since I am not doing anything illegal," Annie Bacchus said in the letter.
Annie Bacchus said too that the woman then gave her a camera from her bag and told her to take it off and continued delving further into her bag. She noted that she became disoriented and after her bag was returned to her the security official left the area immediately with a jacket.
"I became suspicious of her actions but the airline was boarding so I checked the money as soon as I got seated only to discover that an additional 22 US$100 bills were missing." the letter continued.
The woman said she brought this to the attention of the flight attendant who took her back to the terminal to investigate the matter. According to Bacchus the supervisor of the security company asked the officer where she had gone and the officer said she went to the washroom.
But from her observation the officer was no longer wearing the jacket and her money was not recovered.
"I had an option to report the matter to the Timehri Police Station or board the flight and I went for the latter," she said.
Stabroek News understands that the police are awaiting the woman's return to Guyana to pursue investigations since the original report to the police station was made on her behalf by her husband.