A Commonplace Case Complicated by Fame

ATLANTA - "On what he considered to be an unusually slow afternoon at a Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport security checkpoint last October, security screener Alvin Spencer passed the time by placing his watch on the X-ray belt he was monitoring.

"'Curiosity got the best of me, I guess,' said Spencer, a federal employee of the Transportation Security Administration, 'and I put my watch on the X-ray machine, just to see what it would look like.'

"A few moments later, the watch was gone. It would find its way into the hands of NFL quarterback Michael Vick, one of the league's biggest stars.

"It took six days for Spencer to get the watch back. The tale of its disappearance would involve charges of a police cover-up and the allegation of a $20,000 extortion attempt and pits the TSA against the Atlanta Police Department."
in the washington post