Those god damn security cameras...

Security cameras, they're fucking everywhere these days.  Where ever you look, whether in a store, an intersection, movie theater, etc, they're all over the place.  It seems like there's no place you can go where you won't find a camera watching you, especially where there's money involved.  You'll find most, if not all places that handle cash with cameras not only on the cashiers but positioned around the customers as well so that whoever is watching has a perfect vantage point from where to see everything that's going on, as one of our readers said, with a camera positioned in the right place, you could actually see every keystroke of a person at a computer or cashier.


So what's this got to do with our most recent story, the Airways Auto Tag Agency mess?  As I mentioned before, when I went over to the tag agency a few months back, I found that there were cameras all over the place, cameras in the parking lot, cameras inside the waiting area, cameras behind the counters, etc.  You would think that if anything had gone awry in the tag agency, it would all be caught on tape, right?  Such a recording would make fantastic evidence in a criminal prosecution, wouldn't it?  What better way to prove that someone had their hand in the till than to provide video proof?  You would think so right?  Yet somehow there's a conspicuous absence of any such evidence from the case file regarding the tens of thousands of dollars that the state alleges the three tellers from the tag agency stole.  What's up with that?  Perhaps our favorite detective, Jorge Baluja, simply forgot to gather the evidence?  Maybe he didn't notice the cameras all over the tag agency?  If nothing else, this warrants a closer look.


From the unemployment compensation hearing transcript we discussed last time, the owner of the tag agency, Ileana Martinez de Castro, tells us that there was some suspicious activity on Christmas eve of 2010...

Ok, so according to the tag agency owner, two people see this particular teller come into the tag agency ostensibly before the tag agency is open, this is strange since according to the owners testimony this particular teller never comes in early.  So we're to believe that this "strange" activity is occurring then literally the same day there's tens of thousands of dollars missing from the tag agency.  Now, if you knew enough to ask these "two people" about what they saw going on the day that you allege all this money was missing, wouldn't you think to go ahead and review the video tapes from you security cameras for that day?  Again, through the unemployment hearing transcripts the owner of the tag agency verifies that indeed, the offices and the tellers have security cameras...

Oh, that's fantastic!  We've now established that not only are there security cameras at the tag agency, but that video looks directly as the cashiers and the clerks, that's great.  So the next logical question is whether or not there are videos of the transactions in question, once again from the transcripts...

Oh crap, isn't that unfortunate?  The security camera video erases itself after ten days therefore there is no record of the transactions that took place in which the state alleges there were tens of thousands of dollars stolen.  What a shame.  What's even stranger is that the owner of the tag agency told the police a different story, when asked about the security camera recordings, she told the cops that the video erased itself after 30 days...

Ok, so now the tag agency owner is back peddling saying that the cameras record for thirty days before erasing "depending on the amount of movement you have on the camera".  I'm not exactly sure what that's supposed to mean and it seems like she doesn't either...

Well, as much as the attorney representing the teller charged with the theft of tens of thousands of dollars from this tag agency would have "adored" to have heard some explanation for how this security camera system worked, the owner of the tag agency gave no explanation whatsoever.  


What were left with is a bad ass security camera system that caught nothing on tape relating to the transactions where the state alleges the theft occurred.  Whether they record for thirty days or for ten days before the recordings are erased, I find it rather unusual that the owner of the tag agency had the presence of mind to interview two witnesses that had a crystal clear recollection of seeing one of the tellers come in at an unusually early hour and also remembered that when asked why she was early she responded by saying that she had to finish up something from the day before.  All of that yet no need, want or desire to review the footage from the security cameras that would have clearly shown everything that went on during the time in question?  Now take into account that in order to buy into this story we have to accept the premise that the owner of the tag agency was so out of touch with the day to day cash flow that she simply missed tens of thousands of dollars missing at the end of the day, which coupled with the witnesses to the alleged early morning suspicious activity from the tellers makes it seem even more improbable.  


Does any of this seem plausible to you guys or is it starting to sound like some sort bullshit?  I don't know, but at the very least we've now seen that the more layers of this case that we peel back, the less believable the states theory of the case is.


Now, regarding the comments from the previous post, I appreciate all the compliments you guys have given me but the reality is that I've done nothing special here.  All I've done is gather documents that are in the public domain, taken snipets out that seem to undermine the case against these tellers and then put everything together in a narrative that's easy to read.  If there's any credit to be given, it should be to the attorneys that attended these hearings who were able to elicit these responses from the people involved, all I've done is simply put it in a form that's easy to digest.  Most importantly as we get deeper into this story is the truth about what actually went on, a truth that has a way of revealing itself once you take a good look at the facts.  With that said, I'm still waiting on the attorney I tasked with retrieving documents that aren't available through the tools I have at my disposal.  Once I get those documents, we'll discuss...