United Customer Service Rep. & Wife Steal Luggage after Asiana Crash

Not that stealing passenger luggage is ever OK, but this just seems in particular bad taste and includes impersonating a passenger in order to return luxury clothing items to Nordstrom…all by a United customer service representative. Flyer-friendly! From the SFGate:

A man who worked for United Airlines and his wife have pleaded no contest to grand theft and possession of stolen property for stealing the luggage of passengers who were supposed to fly into San Francisco International Airport but were diverted because of the Asiana Airlines crash, prosecutors said Tuesday. Sean Sharif Crudup, 44, of Richmond and his wife, Raychas Elizabeth Thomas, 32, entered the pleas Monday in San Mateo County Superior Court. They face up to a year in jail when they are sentenced May 13. Among their victims were a Richmond couple returning home from vacation who were to have flown into SFO on July 8 but were unable to because of the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 two days earlier. But their luggage made it to the airport, and when they went there to pick it up, it was missing. Surveillance video captured Crudup, who was employed as a United customer service representative, stealing the bags and handing them off to his wife and another woman, authorities said. Among the items inside the bags were valuable clothing, and Thomas — posing as the person who bought it — returned “a large quantity of it” to the Nordstrom at the Stoneridge Mall in Pleasanton for about $5,000, Guidotti said. The two were arrested when Thomas was catching a flight to Hawaii, Guidotti said. More property from the victims was found at their home, authorities said.