FL TSA Worker Faked Burglary To Cover For Being Late To Work: Sheriff

TAMPA, FL — A Florida TSA worker is accused of creating a fake police report for a burglary that never happened in order to explain her tardiness to work, deputies said.

Taleta Collier, 34, of Winter Haven has been charged with criminal use of a personal ID and uttering a false document.

"You can’t make this stuff up. I don’t understand why anyone would go to the extent of creating a fake police report to avoid a reprimand at work for tardiness. Collier has violated the trust of her coworkers and the people she was supposed to keep safe," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.

According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, on April 4, detectives were contacted by the Assistant Federal Security Director of Law Enforcement with the Federal Air Marshal Service after Collier, a Transportation Security Administration officer in Tampa, submitted what appeared to be a fake PCSO burglary report.

During the investigation, PCSO detectives said they learned that Collier was on a TSA employee improvement plan for excessive tardiness when, on March 20, she called the TSA telecommunications office and said she was going to be late for her scheduled shift.

Once she arrived at work, Collier reportedly told her supervisor she was late because, while she was at her parents’ home, a man armed with a knife attempted to burglarize her parents’ vehicle.

Deputies said Collier told her supervisor she drew her agency-issued weapon and pointed it at the alleged suspect, causing him to flee. Collier informed her supervisor the incident was reported to PCSO.

When asked for a case number or business card of the investigating detective, Collier said she was not provided with either. Collier was instructed to obtain and provide a copy of the report to her supervision, the sheriff's office said.

On April 3, deputies said Collier texted her supervisor a screenshot of a document that looked similar to a police report. Collier was then instructed to provide an actual copy of the report and not a picture of it, which she never provided. Collier’s supervisor told detectives that the image provided by Collier was cut off halfway through the second page and no incident description was visible.

When Polk County detectives reviewed the image, they said they determined it was an obvious fake PCSO report. The form used to create the document was not an official PCSO form.

Deputies said Collier also used the name of a current PCSO deputy and his assigned member number on the document. The deputy was on vacation and out of the country at the date and time listed on the fake report and told deputies he did not respond to or create a report on the incident alleged by Collier.

Collier’s parents told detectives that they had no knowledge of a burglary report and that their vehicle had not been burglarized, deputies said.

Collier was arrested and transported to the Polk County Jail. When detectives asked Collier about the armed burglary in an effort to investigate the alleged crime, Collier asked if her employer had contacted PCSO and that she didn’t want to discuss it, authorities said.