Newark Airport security supervisor assumed murdered man's identity for 2 decades

Bimbo Olumuyiwa Oyewole, a security supervisor at Newark airport, lived a double life for 20 years using the identity of the victim in an unsolved murder.

Since 1992, the undocumented Nigerian immigrant worked at EWR as Jerry Thomas, a man who was killed that same year in New York City. Oyewole continued to live as Thomas undetected for two decades, while overseeing security matters at one of America's busiest airports.

According to the Associated Press report, "the private security guards he supervised are responsible for manning TSA security checkpoints after passenger gates close for the evening and before they reopen in the morning. The guards also inspect delivery vehicles for possible unauthorized cargo."

Oops.

(Photo: Newark Liberty International Airport; courtesy Port Authority of NY and NJ.)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: airports • aviation • if you see something say something • security theater • tsa

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penguinchris

Pretty clever. Don Draper anyone?

I bet he’s a hard, honest worker, and he’s being used as a scapegoat – more security theater from the TSA to excuse their handling of “security breaches” at the airport, and he’s an easy target rather than investigating who’s actually responsible for security problems.

They’ll say he was a major security risk since he could have been blackmailed – exploiting illegal immigrants with the threat of deportation is despicable, but happens all the time. Says he was discovered via anonymous tip, so if he failed to keep his secret for whatever reason, I guess I can’t sympathize too much.
- JonS
  
  “They’ll say he was a major security risk”
  Induitably, but given that he worked there, in a security role, for two /decades/ ‘they’ would be wrong.
  
  This is an interesting case that, I think, talks directly to the folly of trying to associate security with identity. Presumably Oyewole fulfilled his job functions at least good enough. Given that, does it matter who he really was?
  
  And, to extend that more generally, why does it matter who any of us are, when we travel?
  - penguinchris
    
    Yep. Silly stuff.
- http://grumer.org/ Avram Grumer
  
  Yeah, reading the article I was hoping he’d turn out to be named Dick Whitman.
- BarBarSeven
  
  I prefer to call these types “Armin Tamzarian”s.
- CLamb
  
  The man has demonstrated he is willing to lie, cheat, and steal an identity for his personal gain. Those are reasons enough.
voiceinthedistance

Seems like a lot of effort to get rid of the name Bimbo, IMO.
voiceinthedistance

Seems like a lot of effort to get rid of the name Bimbo, IMO.
- Jake0748
  
  Yeah… I was gonna say. Bimbo? Really? I feel sorry for the guy, I wish him the best possible outcome.
- twianto
  
  Beats “Dick.”
  - awjt
    
    Bimbo beats dick?
    - LinkMan
      
      I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that video.
- bryan rasmussen
  
  Now I have that old Jim Reeves song going through my head:
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Gu0dE2A60
zombiebob

Dear god, I feel bad for nigerians, all we ever read about regarding them are their brethren who are up to no good in one way or another. But on occassion, a virtuous one makes herself known. Why, the other day I received an email from Sister Nania jibofwekwe of the Our Holy God of God Orphanage, asking me to reclaim a red tape tied inheritance on her behalf, all to benefit the Children! Such selflessness!
noah django

TSA, putting the “S” in security since… never.

http://www.la-foodie.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bimbo-bread.jpg
Giuseppe

I totally trust these guys to vanguard our nation’s security when shit like this can happen. I mean honestly, you’re telling me people have been harassed by the TSA over the past decade, and they can’t even figure out if the guy running one of their branches is an imposter?

People are talking about the fact that this guy obviously performed his job functions well enough, and that’s true, but to me that just says the TSA got lucky. He could have been ANYBODY.
- Jake0748
  
  Yeah, he could have been just another dumbass goon, who had no clue and didn’t give a shit. Here’s hoping the tsa gets REALLY lucky and is flushed down the toilet.
- JonS
  
  ” … this guy obviously performed his job functions well enough, and that’s true, but to me that just says the TSA got lucky.”
  
  No, that’s not lucky. Not at all. That’s /normal/.
  
  Abnormal, and unlucky, is the nonsense that the TSA have been inflicting on the public in the US and – as a result of diplomatic shenanigans – around the world this last decade.
  - Guest
    
    “Abnormal, and unlucky” – i’m going with cruel and unusual, or maybe fast and loose.
- LinkMan
  
  This guy was a private airport security contractor, not a TSA employee. The TSA still sucks, though. Make no mistake.
Giuseppe

I totally trust these guys to vanguard our nation’s security when shit like this can happen. I mean honestly, you’re telling me people have been harassed by the TSA over the past decade, and they can’t even figure out if the guy running one of their branches is an imposter?

People are talking about the fact that this guy obviously performed his job functions well enough, and that’s true, but to me that just says the TSA got lucky. He could have been ANYBODY.
bryan rasmussen

anyway I don’t think he lived a double life, did he? I was expecting that he worked as a security guy during the day but at night he doubled as the murdered guy while dealing drugs at a singles bar.
Guest

Apparently 9/11 did not actually change everything.
http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

Well if no body else was using it…
http://twitter.com/TSAgov Agent Smith

Everybody bitches about government waste. So, we didn’t let this go to waste.
Navin_Johnson

He was PRIVATE security, which is exactly what so many of this rabid anti-government, libertarian leaning mob of commenters has been screeching for.

So there you have it guys. Your private security in action!

said Oyewole entered the United States illegally in 1989 and had worked under several contractors at the airport, most recently FJC Security Services, and supervised about 30 guards. The agency said its investigation found no indication that he used the fake identity for any reason other than to live in the United States.

Now everybody will quietly skulk off until they can repeat their hysterics the next time some TSA person inflicts some holocaust-level indignity on some middle class person…
- JonS
  
  Um … the (rational) call isn’t for private security goons to replace the TSA goons. It’s for *all* the goons to GTFO and return to minimalist pre-9/11 screening, and secure cockpit doors.
  - elix
    
    Clearly, that’s the rational response. However, Navin was specifically pointing out that this is the response of rabid anti-government libertarian-leaning gaggle of Internet dipwads and the fact that they’re getting what they want, since the gentleman in the story was responsible for managing the private guards staffing the TSA checkpoints there. And the fact that this guy had pulled this off for 20 years.