Dozens Of Pieces Of Lost Luggage Dumped In Trash

FBI, Local Police Investigate

December 27, 2006

HOUSTON -- Authorities are trying to figure out how dozens of pieces of luggage belonging to international air travelers ended up in a trash bin behind a Houston pet store.

FBI Special Agent Rolando Munoz said 68 pieces of luggage from various international flights were discovered. He said the luggage was turned over to Continental Airlines to sort out.

Harris County sheriff's deputies said the luggage belonged to people who flew internationally on Continental, Lufthansa, British Airways and US Airways, Houston TV station KPRC reported.

Sgt. Dana Wolfe, a spokeswoman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office, which first responded to the luggage report, said tags on the bags showed some of the travelers were going to or from London and Dubai.

Continental spokeswoman Mary Clark didn't know if the contents of the bags were stolen. She said the airline would investigate along with law enforcement authorities.

Investigators said some of the luggage had been opened and had valuables removed, according to KPRC.

Authorities said the bags belonged to travelers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

One of the bags belonged to a woman from Mexico City who said she lost a computer and a camcorder in her luggage. She said she is trying to figure out how her luggage ended up in Houston when she never traveled through the city. She started in Portland and had layovers in Las Vegas and Phoenix.

Some travelers were worried about what could happen to their lost luggage.

"I have all my Christmas presents in there," traveler Elaine Mogabgab said.

KPRC reported that officials with Continental Airlines said they have the luggage and are trying to reunite it with their owners.

The owners of a Pet City store found the luggage.

No idea how this happened in specific, but surprised this kind of thing doesn't happen more often, especially with domestic arrivals as there's no way to really prevent people from just picking bags off the belt and walking away with them. It's even easier to grab the bags that are placed off to the side unattended. People already worry about their bags being misrouted or "lost" by the airlines' baggage handlers, and that is why there is way too much being carried on, which in turn makes it take longer to deplane than it used to. If the industry wants to reduce the amount of carry on and speed boarding and deplaning times, they should better secure the baggage claim process because there's already enough that can happen to checked baggage without it getting stolen.

I recall only one time in my life where I was asked to show my baggage check after a domestic flight--it was in February 2001, at LGA following an AA flight from DFW.

LGA is the only airport where I've ever been asked to show my claim tag after getting my bags. And even then, it is very infrequent. For example, just two weeks ago, they had people checking tags, but thats the first time I remember anyone checking tags in I don't remember how long.
When I was younger, (something like 10 years ago) it seemed like they always checked our tags at LGA everytime we came through there...