Pilot Sentenced For Stealing UPS Packages

A Dallas-based cargo pilot who confessed to stealing UPS packages at Dallas/Fort Worth International airport was sentenced to two years deferred probation this summer, The Tarrant County District Attorney's office said.

Brian Messersmith, of Dallas, confessed to stealing the iPods from cargo flights he flew for Martinaire Aviation, a Dallas cargo airline that contracts with UPS, according to airport police reports.

The thefts happened earlier this year, but details were just made public in reports released by DFW Airport Police.  The reports said police have also questioned Messersmith about other items missing from cargo flights, but he has refused to answer further questions. 

Police began investigating Messersmith after UPS reported thefts of items, including iPods, laptop computers and guns, from a UPS cargo facility located on the northwest corner of the airport.

Corporate Security Investigator A.J. Irwin, of Yarbrough Strategic Advisors in Dallas, said shipping companies are major targets for employee theft, because of the high dollar items they move everyday. 

"There's so much opportunity to take small things," Irwin said. "Eventually people get greedy and take more and more and more. It's a crime of opportunity."

Word of the pilfered packages surprised UPS customer Levant Uzkan, who said he ships often, and never buys insurance for those packages because he assumes they're safe.

"I ship at least three times a week and never would have thought of this happening," he said.

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