30 Airport Parking Workers Seized in Embezzlement Case

More than 30 parking lot employees at Los Angeles International Airport were arrested Thursday after their indictments by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury on suspicion of embezzlement of public funds, airport officials said.

The employees are all cashiers for Parking Concepts Inc., which operates the 25,000-space parking concession at LAX under contract to the Los Angeles Department of Airports.

Airport Manager Stephen Yee said the amount of money taken and other specifics in the case were unknown to him, but sources close to the investigation said as much as $2 million may have been stolen.

Neither the district attorney’s office, which sought the indictments, nor the Los Angeles Police Department, which made the arrests, would comment on the case, other than to say that the suspects will be arraigned this morning in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Officers at Parking Concepts, a firm based in downtown Los Angeles, were not immediately available for comment.

Earlier this year, the Department of Airports installed a $4-million, computerized accounting system at the airport lots in an effort to reduce cheating and stealing.

While no officials were commenting Thursday on how the suspects were believed to have embezzled parking revenues, Ralph Burke Associates, an Illinois-based consulting firm, estimated last December that there are “17 generic and 230 discreet forms” of ripping off parking lots.

“They sit there all day long trying to figure out a way to beat the system--the cashiers and the parkers,” Airport Commissioner Samuel Greenberg said at the time.

Joseph Clair Jr., who oversees parking lot operations for the Department of Airports, said thefts by cashiers caught stealing at LAX in the past have involved two popular methods.

- Substituting low-priced parking receipts, obtained on the sly, for high-priced receipts, pocketing the difference.

- Unplugging the cash register, making it impossible for authorities to keep track of how much money should have been collected.

About 8 million drivers park their cars each year in the four lots operated by Parking Concepts in and around LAX.