TSA officers find traveler’s lost diamond
COLONIE, N.Y. » Transportation Security Administration officers at Albany International Airport took searching for a needle in a haystack to a new — and much more pricey — level earlier this month.
Instead of a needle, TSA officers helped a traveler find a diamond worth thousands of dollars after she lost it while preparing to board a flight at the busy airport.
According to a news release from the TSA, Supervisory Officer Louetta “Rainy” Littman spotted a passenger crying after passing through security screening. When Littman approached Kana Chi-Murenbeeld, she was told the the setting on the woman’s engagement ring had been damaged and the pear-shaped diamond had fallen out.
“I reassured her that her ring was not lost yet,” Littman said.
While other TSA officers continued to screen passengers as they entered the checkpoint, Littman and a
few officers began to hunt for the missing stone. Officers got down on hands and knees to look for the diamond from the ticket checking station through the entire checkpoint lane, going through stacks of emptied bins, peering under machines, even using flashlights in hope of getting a glimmer from the diamond.
After about 10 minutes, Officer Steven Kaminski glanced into a bin with a tissue left inside.
“Nobody had looked in that bin yet, so I looked in, and there it was,” he said of the diamond, which was resting next to the tissue. “I just wanted to help her out. I know I would have been disappointed if I had lost a valuable item like that and nobody had helped me.”
Chi-Murenbeeld, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was quite relieved.
“She squeezed the air out of me with a huge hug,” Littman said, and she hugged all of the other officers who were involved in the hunt, as well.
“I have never in my life been so panicked and upset in an airport, let alone anywhere else in public before,” wrote Chi-Murenbeeld in a thank you note to the TSA.
Chi-Murenbeeld, who has been married for three years, has been wearing the ring for four years.
“Somehow the prong of the stone in my engagement ring broke,” she said. “The amazingly kind and caring supervisor on duty, Louetta Littman, was on top of the situation right away, having her team of officers scour the area, as well as calm me down with her optimistic attitude.”
Chi-Murenbeeld said she went from “one of the worst feelings ever” when she realized the diamond was missing to grateful elation.
“I have traveled all around the world and can say in all honesty that I have never met such an amazing team of workers in the airline or security industry” than the group of TSA officers she encountered in Albany.
“I am always very proud of what the officers do every day in protecting the flying public, and this incident really stands out,” said TSA Upstate New York Federal Security Director Bart Johnson. “It truly highlights the professionalism and compassion of a group of officers who genuinely went above and beyond the call of duty and I commend them for it.”