- An arrest warrant was issued for nuclear energy official Sam Brinton after an officer recognized them from news reports.
- Brinton was recently charged with theft over accusations that they stole a suitcase from a Minnesota airport.
- Las Vegas police have now issued an arrest warrant for Brinton over similar allegations.
Police in Las Vegas, Nevada, issued an arrest warrant for nuclear energy official Sam Brinton in a luggage theft case after an officer recognized the government employee from news articles about a separate stolen luggage accusation.
Authorities temporarily closed a case about a stolen suitcase on July 6 at Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport after they couldn't identify a suspect from surveillance footage.
But police reopened the case on November 29 and named Brinton as a suspect after they were charged with felony theft over accusations that they swiped a mother's Vera Bradley suitcase from an airport in Minnesota in September, according to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department records obtained by Insider.
Brinton — the deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition at the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy — made headlines late last month in connection with the Minnesota case.
"Numerous news articles covering the story had photographs of Brinton" who an officer "immediately recognized as the suspect pertaining to" the Las Vegas case, states an arrest warrant issued for Brinton.
Las Vegas police issued a felony arrest warrant on grand larceny charge for Brinton — who is one of the federal government's first openly "gender fluid" employees and uses they/them pronouns — last week.
According to the arrest warrant, police say that Brinton "can clearly be seen and identified on video stealing" a woman's gray Away luggage from a carousel at baggage claim in the Las Vegas airport on July 6 "and leaving" with it.
The hard case bag and its contents were estimated to be worth $3,670.74, according to the warrant. The victim told police she had jewelry worth $1,700 and makeup valued at $500 in the luggage.
Police say the suspect in the Las Vegas case was captured on surveillance footage wearing a T-shirt "with a large rainbow-colored atomic nuclear symbol design on the front."
An officer investigating the case found a selfie on Brinton's Instagram page posted on the same day as the theft showing Brinton at an apparent airport "wearing the same exact white T-shirt," the arrest warrant says.
"Brinton was clearly wearing the same exact white T-shirt with a large rainbow-colored atomic nuclear symbol design on the front as seen on video at Harry Reid International Airport," the warrant states.
Additionally, police wrote in the warrant that Brinton "demonstrated several signs of abnormal behavior while taking the victim's luggage which are cues suspects typically give off when committing luggage theft."
Brinton, 35, was placed on administrative leave by the Department of Energy last month after they were accused of taking a woman's Vera Bradley suitcase from baggage claim at Minnesota's Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport on September 16.
Insider has tried to contact Brinton and an attorney for Brinton multiple times but has not gotten a response.