Godfrey Antoine Teekah and Phillip Collins of Miami, Florida were arrested Thursday after airport security officers reportedly found stolen identity information in their possession, news sources report. Teekah, 25, and Collins, 26, were booked into the Broward County Main Jail on charges of fraudulent use of personal identification information. Teekah was later released on a $7,500 bail bond; Collins was declared indigent. No defense lawyer has yet spoken out about the case to the public.
According to reports, the incident occurred at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Teekah and Collins were attempting to board an airplane en route to Baltimore when Transportation Security Administration behavioral detection officers flagged them down. The officers reportedly noticed the two suspects exhibiting behaviors that convey the fear of being caught.
"It was a great catch by our behavioral detection officers," a security director for the Key West international and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airports said. "We can't tell you the specific behaviors they were exhibiting. The important thing is we go by behaviors, not on appearance."
"[The two suspects] probably entered the line about 5 o'clock in the morning," a police spokesperson said. "They were in the queue to have their tickets checked at the travel document checker when they first exhibited the behavior."
Officers from the Broward County Sheriff's office arrived on the scene and searched both Teekah and Collins. Detectives reportedly found documents containing the names, birth dates, and social security numbers of more than a hundred people in Teekah's possession, as well as nine Visa debit cards under an array of different names. The detectives also found on Visa debit card in Collins' possession that was not issued to him. During an interview with police, Teekah claimed he had the information for his job as a tax preparer. Reports were unable to confirm or deny that claim.
Teekah and Collins were not the only Florida residents accused of fraud recently. Nicole F. Spikes of Boynton Beach was arrested Tuesday after she was accused of defrauding Florida's Division of Public Assistance out of $34,000, reports say. Spikes, 40, was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on fraud-related charges. Her bail was set at $3,000. It is unclear whether she has hired legal representation.