FBI: Phila. baggage worker stole $20K in new $100 bills

• Police say a US Airways employee took redesigned currency not yet in circulation
• Cash was part of a $3.2M shipment headed to the Federal Reserve
• New Ben Franklins feature several anti-counterfeiting features

The FBI on Tuesday arrested a 25-year-old US Airways baggage handler at Philadelphia International Airport for allegedly stealing $20,000 worth of redesigned $100 bills not yet in circulation.

Alex Price, of Philadelphia, admitted swiping the currency after a polygraph, an FBI agent said in an affidavit, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. He then led agents to the new bills, which he had stashed in his wife's car.

The FBI said the money was stolen Oct. 11 from a $3.2 million shipment of new, security-enhanced Ben Franklins being transferred from Dallas to the Federal Reserve in East Rutherford, N.J. When the money arrived at the Fed, one of the 60 packets was opened. The FBI said Price was the only handler who had access to the money.

The redesigned bills feature "cutting-edge" anti-counterfeiting "enhancements" that include a blue "3-D Security Ribbon" and "the Bell in the Inkwell," the U.S. Treasury says.

The new bill was supposed to have been released in February 2011, but the Treasury announced in October 2010 that the Federal Reserve had identified "a problem with sporadic creasing of the paper during printing of the new $100 note, which was not apparent during extensive pre-production testing."