Drama at Carousel One

[Dreamstalker]

I got back in town yesterday, and since I had more luggage than I left with (dad hit the motherlode for old film cameras at his local thrift store; mom uses working 35mm for her students and has a small collection of her own) mom said she would pick me up after she got out of work. So I was sitting in the claim area with my bags for about an hour, and had a literal front row seat for this:

Family with two toddlers and a baby in an umbrella stroller--I think they were on my flight from Baltimore, holy hell did that baby have a set of lungs on him----eventually winds up with four suitcases, a huge car seat, one of those giant Uppababy stroller/pram things, and four of those giant zipper bags that comforters are sold in that are overstuffed with clothes (and that was just the crap that had been checked through). Abusing the airlines "bags fly free" policy, but they probably had to pay for a lot of it--that stroller was definitely oversized. And the dad is eyeing a few other suitcases that have been circulating on the carousel for about ten minutes--obviously NOT theirs--but there were too many people including airline agents and TSA in the area. When an agent takes the orphan luggage into the baggage office the dad starts to follow him, but thinks better of it for some reason.

The toddlers of course are racing each other down the concourse with the suitcases--one of them is at one point sitting ON one suitcase (still pushing the other one) which is being pushed by his brother. I was seriously waiting for one or both of them to go flying; they did manage to piss off a pilot who took the handle of the bigger suitcase and guided the whole assemblage back to the parents. He said something to them, which stopped the antics but only until he left the area.

Then the kids somehow found two of the baggage carts that people had left outside the corral (you insert coins to unlock them and get it back when you return it to the corral), loaded them up with what little they could lift and started chasing each other around with them. One of the cart workers stopped them, took the carts back to the corral and locked them in.

At this point the dad goes outside and comes back a minute or so later with two more carts; the cart worker is still watching everything and stops him. He tries to press a $20 into her hand and she refuses, pointing up to the cameras. I didn't hear what was said but I don't think the dad understood how the carts worked and thought he could pay her to load them which the workers cannot do (or pay her off to ignore everything that was happening). A number of us passengers are now watching this unfold.

Eventually, the worker takes one cart and locks it up, leaving the family with one cart for all of their shit and a uniformed officer is now watching everything. The dad loaded the cart as much as he could and took it outside, while the mother stayed with the baby and (sorta) the rest of the luggage. She did wander away from it a few times, but not quite far enough away for the officer to do anything.. The whole thing reminded me of the riddle about the farmer with the corn, chicken, and fox--at any given time something had to be unattended that shouldn't be.

When I told mom I could entertain myself for an hour, this wasn't quite what I had in mind but amusing nonetheless.

[wordgirl]

Did you think Dad was about to make off with some luggage that wasn't strictly speaking ... you know ... his?

I witnessed somebody attempting that once. The carousel had gotten down to three or four bags just circling and the agent was starting to pull them off. A man came forward, grabbed the nicest-looking bag and starts to haul it off.

The baggage worker stops him and while I couldn't exactly hear the conversation, it was pretty clear the stealing dude was being challenged to show a claim check or something. And why was the worker so suspicious? Well:

• The guy was wearing a very distinctive graphic T-shirt.
• The guy had a hairstyle that was also fairly distinctive.
• The guy had been hanging around that carousel the entire time. No good reason for him not to have claimed the bag long since, if it was his.
• The guy (apparently) could not tell the gate attendant the name that was on the tag attached to the bag. (I could see the worker looking at the tag and then up at the guy and shaking his head).

About 15 minutes later the actual owner of the bag came strolling up. I'd done what she apparently did more than once - stopped and grabbed dinner in the airport before picking up my bag and rental car, so I could go straight to the hotel and crash -- but I sure as heck never did it again.

[Dreamstalker]

My bags were among the first to come off and I think--but can't be sure--that at least the dad was there at the time. They seemed to gather all their crap pretty quickly, and I can't think of any other reason why he'd be eyeing bags for that long without even checking the tag. Why suddenly decide not to go into the baggage office? ...when the luggage is now in the hands of someone who will ask for a claim check and ID.

Many moons ago when I was a pup some ass tried to make off with my bag but was challenged at the exit (carousel was enclosed) to show his claim slip...how a biker-ish dude thought he could pass off a smallish purple suitcase covered with glittery dinosaur stickers as his I know not I think he was then forced to get his own bags and escorted from the terminal.

One of the reasons I always grab my bags as soon as I see them or if I can't, I actually follow them around until I can nab it.

On an unrelated note, I need to start charging mom a per-pound courier fee for this stuff. The camera stuff alone was about 30 pounds (I split the load into the two checked bags)...most of that weight was two old Polaroid bellows cameras. I had the Kodak Colorburst in my carryon so put it in the bin with my other electronics at security. The screeners couldn't figure out what it was so had to call an older supervisor over

[RealUnimportant]

I'd be wiling to lay a small wager that the dad-figure was trying to "buy" the carts so they could get all their shit home in one trip, without having to return them of course. I can't see a party behaving like that and then springing for cab fare, let alone have their own car parked up on-site (if the airport even offers such facilities.)

[IT Grunt]

I think I witnessed bag theft myself once, and was almost a victim of it, but at the time I had flown for several hours and was tired, so didn't realize it. I went to the baggage claim, and watched as the carousel started bringing around the bags from my flight. After watching it for some time, my bag never came around. I thought that was pretty odd, since we weren't late and I'd watched the entire time. So I was about to head to the baggage office when something caught my eye.

A trick my grandfather suggested was tying a piece of pink yarn to the handle of my suitcase. That way I could easily spot it, and I caught sight of it on a baggage cart loaded with at least 30 other bags, being hauled off by guys in what looked like jumpsuits airline workers would wear. I stopped them and asked if that luggage was from my flight, and they said 'Uh.. several flights.' I was seething that they'd taken my bag off without giving me a chance to get it, so I just grabbed it while shaking my head and storming off.

I wasn't until I as driving home that it hit me what they were likely doing. I'm not 100% positive it was theft, or just incompetence on their part (who grabs bags off the carousel that early??), but the more I thought about it, I was just seconds from losing my luggage, and it really seemed like I caught a theft in progress. But being too tired to realize it, I never raised the alarm. Sometimes I wish I'd had.

[Mental_Mouse]

A trick my grandfather suggested was tying a piece of pink yarn to the handle of my suitcase. That way I could easily spot it, and I caught sight of it on a baggage cart loaded with at least 30 other bags, being hauled off by guys in what looked like jumpsuits airline workers would wear. I stopped them and asked if that luggage was from my flight, and they said 'Uh.. several flights.' I was seething that they'd taken my bag off without giving me a chance to get it, so I just grabbed it while shaking my head and storming off.

Yeah, my family all ties something distinctive to our luggage.

I wasn't until I as driving home that it hit me what they were likely doing. I'm not 100% positive it was theft, or just incompetence on their part (who grabs bags off the carousel that early??), but the more I thought about it, I was just seconds from losing my luggage, and it really seemed like I caught a theft in progress. But being too tired to realize it, I never raised the alarm. Sometimes I wish I'd had.

That aspect of people being tired and stressed (not to mention in a crowd of strangers) is one of the reasons professional thieves like to hit airline baggage. Successful thieves and con-artists are generally pretty good at spotting the most vulnerable targets.

PSA: Similarly, you know all those "obvious" spam messages with the misspellings and blatantly unreasonable claims? Those are screening for people who are judgement-impaired for whatever reasons. That way the more suspicious folks just delete on sight, and the spammers can avoid most of the folks who might try to bring in LEO, or just troll them.

[SailorMan]

Until I retired, quite frequently I would have to fly to U.S. Navy ships in faraway places, sometimes with almost 40 hours of travel time. I used to have two really nice, distinctive luggage tags -- big and brightly colored -- that said: "Not Your Bag," and "Nope! Not Yours!" It made my two pieces of luggage really easy to spot.

Until one trip, where I had an 8-hour layover in a flight home, on the West Coast. When I finally collected my bags, the tags were gone. And I did in fact see both of the pieces of luggage drop from the chute, so they must've been leisurely removed by a baggage handler during my long layover: during the other connecting flight, there was barely enough time to transfer them from the arriving plane, and then reload them.

Sure, it's not as bad as having whole pieces of luggage stolen, but it still felt like a personal violation.

[Dreamstalker]

I had one of those "Not Yours" tags, but it got stolen...the strap couldn't have broken as soon after getting the tag I replaced the plastic strap with one of those wire-cable keychain loops which took a fair bit of fiddling to get open once shut.

[nutraxfornerves]

I had a bright purple duffle that I had decorated with reflective red tape. I had to clear immigration, so by the time I got to baggage, the carousel was stopped and the remaining bags were sitting next to it. Mine, of course, wasn't among them.

I wearily went to the airline desk. While the clerk was assembling the claim forms, I turned around to lean against the counter. And, lo & behold, there was my duffle happily riding around on the carousel for a completely different flight. I have no idea if some genius picked it up, mistaking it for their purple and red duffle, and returned it to the wrong place, or some baggage handler managed to send it to the wrong carousel ( there is no way it could have been on the other flight; different airline, different origin)

[apocolypse101]

I have no idea if some genius picked it up, mistaking it for their purple and red duffle, and returned it to the wrong place, or some baggage handler managed to send it to the wrong carousel ( there is no way it could have been on the other flight; different airline, different origin)

It's probably the first one. Thankfully my mom taught me that if I pick up a bag that isn't mine, then I put it right pack where I found it.

[nutraxfornerves]

It's probably the first one. Thankfully my mom taught me that if I pick up a bag that isn't mine, then I put it right pack where I found it.

I guarantee you, this was a one-of-a-kind purple & red duffle, personally decorated by me. Someone would have had to be really jet-lagged to mistake it for their own. I'd be more likely to believe they were trying to steal it and had second thoughts.

[dalesys]

If yours was a multistop flight it could of followed a different path than you did.
Since it showed up while you were there, it probably wasn't Bombay'd.

(Folklore is that if you piss off the ticket agent too much, your luggage will see the world.)

[Victorian Christmas Tree]

One time I was flying and I got to the airport with my luggage when I got to my destination I got paged they paged me to tell me my luggage was in the baggage claim office and it got there two hours before me how the hell did that happen

[EricKei]

There is now apparently a service out there that can turn a (high-quality) pic of your face into a wrap-around cover for your luggage, making it (hopefully) a lot harder to get away with theft...

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/per...-luggage-cover

[Blue Ginger]

I was told about putting coloured ribbons on my luggage before my first international trip. So I found some matching red and blue hair ribbons from old dancing costumes, one for my main back pack and one for my day pack.

This was a few months after the Bali drugs in the boogie board bag fiasco, so there were places in the airport where you could have your bag plastic wrapped to hell and back.

So there I was, just landed in Heathrow after 2 flights from hell, attempting to actually get through the plastic wrap with a pissy little key and fingernails. One of the airport staff took pity on my and borrowed scissors from a desk to help me get started. The only thing that wasn't wrapped was the side handle and that silly bit of red and blue ribbon. (I can now giggle about it.)

Now all my luggage has matching red and blue ribbons and I have snatched my smaller suitcase off someone that argued it was theirs. Dude, it has my name on it and the ribbon on the handle matches my other bags. Their bag was nearly identical but slightly larger and came out a few minutes later.

I would love to see someone try to take off with my Monster. Seriously, she is very distinct and could easily hide a dead body. Picture Rincewind's Luggage, but with only 2 wheels, duct tape around the bottom end and a pretty black and white stripe with big white flowers. Oh and the pretty red and blue ribbon.