Exclusive video of baggage handlers stealing items Taking a trip for the holidays? Travelers are being warned today not to put valuable items in their luggage after newly-released surveillance tapes show baggage handlers stealing from suitcases. The footage was released by Port Authority in New York after Israel's El Al Airlines last summer received complaints from passengers that belongings were disappearing from luggage. Secret cameras were installed in planes only to discover that staff were methodically rifling through bags and removing watches, cash, iPhones and jewellery. A baggage handler is caught on camera rifling through a passenger's wallet after airport authorities set up a sting following reports of theft An airport worker winds up a pair of headphones and stuffs them in his pocket during a stealing spree through luggage in the belly of a plane ABC News released the exclusive video of baggage handlers stealing items from travelers' checked bags on Tuesday. In one clip, a worker removes a wad of notes from a wallet before searching for credit cards, then moving on to unzip the next bag. Another worker wraps up a pair of headphones and stuffs them into his pocket. Joe Dunne, the chief security officer for New York and New Jersey Port Authority told ABC: '[The baggage handlers] are hardworking, honest people by and large but there are some people who are tempted.' The sting ended with seven airport workers being charged with theft. In the last two years there have been 600 reports of luggage theft at New York airports. Some 600 thefts have been reported at New York airports over the last two years The secret cameras were installed after Israeli airline El Al had theft complaints last summer