A 41-year-old man who told deputies he had lost his lease and had been living inside Miami International Airport is now behind bars, accused of stealing a passenger's luggage from a baggage carousel to make himself look like just another traveler. James Dickson Silk was taken into custody on Aug. 13 at the airport, days after the alleged theft, and he remains held without bond.
According to WPLG Local 10, deputies say Silk had been spotted loitering in the American Airlines baggage claim area on Aug. 13, the same spot where the theft allegedly occurred on July 31. Deputies say Silk walked to Carousel 26, stood near the end of the belt, and grabbed a passenger's bag as it came around — luggage that authorities say contained about $9,000 worth of property.
Silk confessed to the theft, according to deputies, and told them he took the bag to make himself appear more like a passenger rather than someone squatting inside the terminal. He reportedly said he would have removed items from the bag if he needed clothing, though he also claimed, per the arrest report, that he never actually took anything out of it.
From Baggage Claim to the MIA Mover
Per the arrest report, Silk walked to a men's restroom on the airport's third floor before exiting and leaving the terminal via the MIA Mover, the airport's free elevated train connecting the main terminal to the Miami Intermodal Center and Rental Car Center. The transit line runs 24 hours a day above the airport's parking facilities, according to the Miami International Airport.
Carousel 26 sits inside the American Airlines baggage claim area of MIA's North Terminal, also known as Concourse D, which serves as the airline's hub for domestic and international flights in Miami, per WPLG Local 10. It is the same carousel tied to an earlier case: on July 31, the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office arrested two men accused of running a $27,205 luggage theft ring that included two separate thefts from that carousel, as Hoodline previously reported.
Already Out on Bond for a Hotel Theft
Silk was already on felony bond when he was booked this time, stemming from a May 31 arrest in which he allegedly stole a guest's backpack containing about $4,000 in property from the Element Brickell hotel. That earlier case also resulted in a charge of third-degree grand theft, the same charge he now faces for the airport incident, per online jail records cited by the outlet.
Under Florida Statute 812.014, third-degree grand theft applies to stolen property valued between $750 and $20,000 and can carry up to five years in state prison, five years of probation, and a $5,000 fine. Because Silk allegedly committed a new theft while free on bond for a pending case, a judge had grounds under Florida Statute 903.0471 to revoke his pretrial release and hold him without bond — the mechanism that has kept him at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Aug. 14, according to online jail records.
A Familiar Pattern in MIA's Baggage Claim Areas
Silk's arrest fits a pattern security officials have flagged before at Miami International Airport. In December 2025, law enforcement arrested a serial luggage thief accused of targeting baggage claim carousels and carrying stolen bags into terminal restrooms to pick through them before ditching the luggage, according to CubaHeadlines. Airport police have also dealt with theft cases involving airport personnel: in 2023, two Transportation Security Administration screeners were arrested after surveillance cameras in Terminal E recorded them stealing cash from passengers' carry-on bags during screening, though charges against a third officer initially arrested in that incident were later dropped.
Policing the airport's public areas is no small task. Miami International Airport processed 55.3 million passengers in 2025, making it the eighth-busiest airport in the country and the second-busiest for international travel, according to Miami-Dade County. That volume of foot traffic, largely in carousel and concourse areas that do not require passing through a security checkpoint, gives non-ticketed individuals room to move through the terminal largely unnoticed. Criminal investigations into airport property crimes fall to the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office Airport Operations Bureau and its General Investigations Unit, the agency that formally replaced the Miami-Dade Police Department in January 2025.
