An Atlanta cop is under investigation after a woman accused him of stealing $2,000 from her, police said.
Officer Steve Brown resigned Friday after news of the incident surfaced.
The incident occurred on Feb. 17 in the baggage claim area at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, where the woman said she forgot a black pouch containing that much cash, according to an incident report obtained by the AJC Friday.
According to the report, when the woman returned to the baggage claim area, her pouch was gone. Another passenger saw her looking, and told her she'd given the pouch to a man behind a counter. The counter man, in turn, told her he'd given it to an Atlanta policeman.
The woman was told that the officer took the pouch to the lost and found room, but when she got there they didn't have it. After several phone calls failed to locate it, she left. On her way out though, the officer appeared, her bag in hand.
He gave it to her, but the cash was missing.
Brown was placed on paid administrative leave while the incident was investigated, police department spokesman Carlos Campos said Friday afternoon. About an hour later, Campos called to say that Brown, an officer with Atlanta since 2002, resigned earlier in the day.
Campos said the incident was the subject of internal and criminal investigations and that the police had contacted the Clayton County District Attorney's office about it.
But Clayton District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson told the AJC Friday that she had not been informed about the eight-day-old case and that she didn't think anyone in her office had, either.
"To my knowledge, and the knowledge of my chief investigator and chief administrator," Graham Lawson said, "no one has contacted us in regards to this incident."
When asked about that, Campos responded that the precinct commander assured him that a conversation with the prosecutor's office had occurred. The name of the police department's contact at the prosecutor's office was not immediately available, Campos said.
Campos said that as far he knew, it was up to the prosecutor -- and not police -- to determine whether to bring charges.
The victim is identified in the police report as Tyesha Turner, 26, of Jamaica. A call placed to her phone number listed in the report was answered by a woman who identified herself as Turner's mother but would not give her name.
The woman said Turner wanted to forget the incident and didn't want to talk to the media about it.
"The police gave her back her money," the woman said.
Campos, of the Atlanta police, confirmed that Turner's cash was returned "through our property process."
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