Only 3 months for stealing a cop's gun

[DeputySC]

Thats everywhere, not just Cali!

[SCV-Sop]

3 months for theft. not bad IMO. Suprised they didnt get OR'd.

But a gun was stolen, he should have got at least a year and a day.

[CH47Doc]

3 months for theft. not bad IMO. Suprised they didnt get OR'd.

[M.C.S.D]

Tauailapalapa Laulu, 27, pleaded no contest to embezzlement for stealing from passenger luggage while working for Servisair

He should have gotten a month for every vowel in his name.

[az4code23]

That's crazy. He'll get out and commit another offense.

[CO1259]

Wow... Something's not right with that sentence.

[SCV-Sop]

Unreal......... COME ON!!!!!!!!!! 3 months????? It takes longer than that to save up for some of these people to afford a quality handgun. At least make the sentence 3 times what it would cost to save up for it.

This isn't petty theft, jeeze man, any firearm theft of any value in CA is defined as a felony, and they only get 3 months and probation???????

Public trust was breached, and they stole a GUN!!!!!!!! That's SF for ya.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...type=printable

Third SFO baggage handler sent to jail
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, September 11, 2009

(09-11) 08:58 PDT SAN FRANCISCO --

The last of three baggage handlers at San Francisco International Airport convicted of stealing from luggage during an undercover sting - an operation that authorities began after a retired police sergeant's gun was stolen from his suitcase - will spend five months in jail, a prosecutor said today.

Andrew Balamiento, 28, was also placed on three years' probation Thursday by Judge Susan Etezadi of San Mateo County Superior Court.

Balamiento, John Emil Victoria, 21, and Tauailapalapa Laulu, 27, pleaded no contest to embezzlement for stealing from passenger luggage while working for Servisair, a ground handling company that loads and unloads baggage from Delta Air Lines.

The case began in September when a retired San Francisco police sergeant checked his custom-made handgun with his luggage for a Delta flight. The weapon disappeared after check-in, said Steve Wagstaffe, chief deputy district attorney.

Officials began a sting operation in which three bags were checked on two different flights. A game system and a laptop computer were stolen from one bag, and a gold watch and foreign currency were taken from the second bag, Wagstaffe said.

Some of the stolen items were found in Balamiento's work locker, while the stolen handgun was found at Victoria's home, authorities said. The computer was found in Laulu's possession, Wagstaffe said.

Victoria was sentenced to three months of jail and three years of probation. Laulu was sentenced to a month in jail and two years of probation.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at [email protected].