Airport sting

The recession cost Delinda Epstein, 51, her job as an administrator for a Henderson construction company. She lost her new truck and had to move into a smaller apartment.

Hunting for income, she placed an online ad on Craigslist in August: "Are you looking to spend less time cleaning, shopping and running errands or any of the small minute things that interrupt your busy schedule/life? I can help!" Transportation was one of the services offered.

She received a call from Richie, a businessman who said he needed to arrange a ride from McCarran International Airport to Rhodes Ranch. The two agreed on a $30 fee.

On Sept. 3, she pulled to the curb at passenger pick-up, driving her 2006 Hyundai Elantra, which she had bought through a second-chance financing business.

But "Richie" wasn't interested in a ride. He was an undercover agent with the county Transportation Authority, which sees its job as protecting licensed taxi and limousine operators from unlicensed competition.

As "Richie" settled in the passenger seat, a badge-bearing colleague knocked on Ms. Epstein's window.

Ms. Epstein was initially fined $3,800, though that was knocked down to $250. Her car was impounded. She couldn't pay the $250 fee plus $40 for each day it was in the lot, so she lost the Elantra and now rides the bus.

To top it all off, the Transportation Authority is forcing her to get rid of the cell phone number she's had for a decade because it was used in an illegal scheme.

"We're not heartless, but we do feel a lot of passion for protecting the public and that's what we're charged to do," claims Marilyn Skibinski, deputy commissioner for the authority.

Oh, please.

Such rackets are still more about protecting existing operators from unwanted competition than about "public safety."

A lawyer tells us Ms. Epstein's final mistake -- though her lack of resources doubtless contributed -- was in pleading guilty before consulting a good attorney. "Entrapment" can be defined as an action by a policing agency that creates a crime where a crime might otherwise never have occurred. Since Ms. Epstein's freebie Internet ad didn't specify "will pick you up at the airport," had the county agents not invited her to break the law, who's to say she would ever have gone to the airport, at all?

Government at all levels claims it can find "no place to cut" its bloated budgets, despite the current recession. Really? How about laying off the "sting" operators who went after Delinda Epstein?

"I've been hanging on by a thread," she says.

Not to worry, Ms. Epstein. They're from the government; they're here to help.