How are thieves stealing luggage at US airports..?

jujube said:
Especially since they tell you "don't put your valuables, jewelry, money, medicines, car keys in checked luggage" but when you get to the plane door it's "Sorry, no more room for carry-ons! Hand it over....we're checking it for you."

It's not likely they're going to let you, in the jetway, unpack your carryon and redistribe all your valuables in your pockets.

So, now your valuables are heading for baggage claim and you hope you get there first.
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I had that experience and I in fact opened my carry on right there blocking everyone and took out my laptop:)).
 

hollydolly said:
I would be panic stricken if I knew people could just wander in off the street and help themselves to my luggage before I had time to get to the Baggage reclaim area first.

People carry thousands of pounds in technical equipment with them when they fly as well as jewellery etc.. not everyone is on a week's holiday taking swimwear and sandals..
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most of us have our expensive or important stuff in our carry on.
 
My checked suitcase only has dirty clothes. It’s not the end of the world if someone steals it. It must not be a big problem because the airlines have to pay for missing luggage. They would have protocols in place if it were.
 

MarciKS said:
most of us have our expensive or important stuff in our carry on.
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yes but our carry one allowances at most European airports are too small to contain laptops, and tech equipment along with our jewellery, mobile phone, kindle et al.. .. and as someone else said.. many times when we get there, we're told that there's no space left for carry-on and it has to go in the hold.. However most people don't just carry t-shirts and shorts in their hold luggage, if they did the thieves wouldn't be bothering to steal it..
 
{shrug} We adapt to our environment. Europeans adapt to their rules, Americans adapt to our rules. Luggage theft at our airports just isn't a major concern for most of us here. I suppose it happens, but I've never known anyone who had it happen to them. I suspect that it is more likely that the TSA folks would steal valuables out of your luggage during "inspection" than having a random thief take it off the belt. Either way, leave your expensive jewelry and Rolex at home or wear it when going thru the airport.
 
During much of my working life I was flying constantly. I never had any luggage stolen. Misdirected by the airlines . . . not uncommon at all, but never stolen. Nor do I know anybody who's had theirs stolen.

I haven't flown for a few years now, but at that time at least it was a non-problem.
 
Most credit cards when used to charge your airline ticket, include lost or stolen luggage. I use American Express and they include travel insurance for lost or stolen luggage and rental car coverage for $25 per ticket, regardless of the price of the ticket. I get up to 30 continuous days of travel insurance per trip. If I didn’t want the rental car protection, the insurance wouldn’t cost me anything.

I have never had to use it.
 
Buckeye said:
{shrug} We adapt to our environment. Europeans adapt to their rules, Americans adapt to our rules. Luggage theft at our airports just isn't a major concern for most of us here. I suppose it happens, but I've never known anyone who had it happen to them. I suspect that it is more likely that the TSA folks would steal valuables out of your luggage during "inspection" than having a random thief take it off the belt. Either way, leave your expensive jewelry and Rolex at home or wear it when going thru the airport.
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Exactly this. Also airport employees have been known to open luggage and help themselves when out of public view.

Like most Americans, I don't pack anything in checked luggage that I would cry over losing. Plus baggage is insured by the airlines and most CC companies.

Even if passengers hit a restroom after exiting the flight, most arrive at baggage claim several minutes before the bags start coming down and watch the luggage chute with eager anticipation. The thief in the video grabbed bags from a nearly empty carousel - no people waiting and only a couple of bags remaining.

The big advantage to having luggage on the public side is that passengers can get assistance from porters or whoever is picking them up from a flight. Still, your point is well taken, @hollydolly, and if I could wave a magic wand over US airports, I'd have baggage claim moved to a secure area. Unfortunately, the cost of reconfiguring a large US airport to move baggage claim would be astronomical.
 
StarSong said:
Unfortunately, the cost of reconfiguring a large US airport to move baggage claim would be astronomical
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exactly
when the TSA and secure tickets passengers only areas started........ they determined the secure areas based on the building that was already there. some airports to include luggage areas would have had to not let anyone but ticketed in the main doors otherwise. put TSA on the curb to check people ...lol

In the olden days i remember waiting by gate when passengers came off plane or saying good bye there instead of the lobby of airport or at curb. Luggage had claim tickets and in some airports when i was young they ( airport security) spot check them.

NOW in the name of convenience people seem to just believe all act on the honor system or something....most of the changes opened a wide door to theft and with very little consequences it is the consumer who gets to hassle with airlines and insurance to get money back.

it also amazes me the common sense of medication/ and valuables should eb with you in a carry on is often still ignored by those who go through life as if nothing bad or unexpected ever happens.
 
Years ago, I remembered that the luggage tags were checked by an airport staff member before exiting the New York airport (JFK airport). I remembered them telling me to hang on to my tag receipt because there would be a control check on the other side before leaving the airport with my bag.
I am not sure how a tracker inside your bag will be that helpful as I ,for one, would not go and face the criminal that picked up my suitcase! I suppose I could track it and check who is wearing my clothes but that is about that!😁
 
Jeni said:
In the olden days i remember waiting by gate when passengers came off plane or saying good bye there instead of the lobby of airport or at curb. Luggage had claim tickets and in some airports when i was young they ( airport security) spot check them.
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I remember this, too. Pre 9-11, all areas of US airports were open to the public.

Sometimes, before exiting the airport you had to show tags to prove it was your own luggage, but so many people misplaced their claim checks that there were often bottlenecks at the exit doors and the checkers would just wave groups through.
 
StarSong said:
Exactly this. Also airport employees have been known to open luggage and help themselves when out of public view.

Like most Americans, I don't pack anything in checked luggage that I would cry over losing. Plus baggage is insured by the airlines and most CC companies.

Even if passengers hit a restroom after exiting the flight, most arrive at baggage claim several minutes before the bags start coming down and watch the luggage chute with eager anticipation. The thief in the video grabbed bags from a nearly empty carousel - no people waiting and only a couple of bags remaining.

The big advantage to having luggage on the public side is that passengers can get assistance from porters or whoever is picking them up from a flight. Still, your point is well taken, @hollydolly, and if I could wave a magic wand over US airports, I'd have baggage claim moved to a secure area. Unfortunately, the cost of reconfiguring a large US airport to move baggage claim would be astronomical.
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you'd think then that whenever they open a new airport in the USA they would follow the example of the UK and Europe, and put Baggage claim in a secure area..
 
Rossana said:
I am not sure how a tracker inside your bag will be that helpful as I ,for one, would not go and face the criminal that picked up my suitcase! I suppose I could track it and check who is wearing my clothes but that is about that!
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If your luggage is rolling around on the wrong carousel or in the wrong airport, you could tell your airline. If someone stole it, tell the police and they would be the ones tracking it down.
 
StarSong said:
New airports are rarer than hen's teeth. But yes, it would make sense to do that - unless there's some unknown reason for keeping the typical US baggage pickup configuration.
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it's just very odd that they would even build airports with baggage control , conveyor belts outside of flight side.. or the arrivals hall... its almost like no American airport designer had been out of the country and seen how it's done everywhere else....but even common sense would tell them
 
hollydolly said:
yes but our carry one allowances at most European airports are too small to contain laptops, and tech equipment along with our jewellery, mobile phone, kindle et al.. .. and as someone else said.. many times when we get there, we're told that there's no space left for carry-on and it has to go in the hold.. However most people don't just carry t-shirts and shorts in their hold luggage, if they did the thieves wouldn't be bothering to steal it..
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perhaps then people should consider carrying less expensive items. fake jewelry can go in a suitcase. then maybe your laptop could carry on.
 
hollydolly said:
it's just very odd that they would even build airports with baggage control , conveyor belts outside of flight side.. or the arrivals hall... its almost like no American airport designer had been out of the country and seen how it's done everywhere else....but even common sense would tell them
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Well, no. Your suggesting a solution for which there is not a corresponding problem. Maybe in you side of the pond, but not here. And we don't care how it's done everywhere else. :)

And for the record, our last major airport, Denver International, was built in 1995. There may never be another major airport constructed here.
 
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MarciKS said:
perhaps then people should consider carrying less expensive items. fake jewelry can go in a suitcase. then maybe your laptop could carry on.
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Marci...you're missing the point..people don't just travel for vacations..they travel on business and all sorts of other reasons which would necessitate the carrying of expensive items..
 
Even as our USA airport baggage areas are now configured often next to street transportation, it would be rather trivial to erect security camera monitored dual direction roped off zones just around the actual conveyor belts into which an airport baggage employee at a gate would allow entry and exit. Customers would soon learn to keep at hand their baggage claim tags so that would not necessarily lead to delays.

In any case, since thefts may not currently be an issue, I'm fine leaving it so as is. Airport bean counters certainly would prefer not to hire more employees just for that purpose. However just as with the current rise in brazen retail store thefts, if thieves begin targeting baggage areas, airports may need to take preventative action because there is vulnerability.
 
David777 said:
Even as our USA airport baggage areas are now configured often next to street transportation, it would be rather trivial to erect security camera monitored dual direction roped off zones just around the actual conveyor belts into which an airport baggage employee at a gate would allow entry and exit. Customers would soon learn to keep at hand their baggage claim tags so that would not necessarily lead to delays.

In any case, since thefts may not currently be an issue, I'm fine leaving it so as is. Airport bean counters certainly would prefer not to hire more employees just for that purpose. However just as with the current rise in brazen retail store thefts, if thieves begin targeting baggage areas, airports may need to take preventative action because there is vulnerability.
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I suspect that almost any thief-to-be does a mental "risk/reward" assessment before committing such a crime. One issue is that, unlike the neighborhood 7-11, just getting to the airport is a hassle, so it won't be a "crime of opportunity". And, generally, you cannot park your car and go inside the baggage area. You have to stay with your car, which means you need an accomplice. Also, there are security cameras everywhere, so your comings and goings will be recorded. As for rewards, well, maybe you get lucky and pick up Holly Dolly's suitcase full of expensive jewelry and electronic goodies. Or, much more likely, you get my suitcase which at best has some clean clothes in it. So do the math, and while it happens, it doesn't seem too profitable.

Another issue is that I have always been at the luggage carousel before my luggage. And 3rd issue is another passenger, who grabs the wrong bag, and doesn't realize it until he/she gets home. They may or may not think it's worth the trouble to return the wrong bag when they go back to the airport to try to find the correct one.
 
hollydolly said:
it's just very odd that they would even build airports with baggage control , conveyor belts outside of flight side.. or the arrivals hall... its almost like no American airport designer had been out of the country and seen how it's done everywhere else....but even common sense would tell them
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Buckeye said:
Well, no. Your suggesting a solution for which there is not a corresponding problem. Maybe in you side of the pond, but not here. And we don't care how it's done everywhere else. :)
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Bear in mind, @hollydolly, that until 9-11, US public passenger airports were completely open to the public from parking lots all the way through to arrival/departure gates (other than for people who needed to clear customs).

Over 2.5 million people pass through US-based TSA each day (commercial flights through commercial airports) on over 20,000 flights.

.58% of bags were mishandled, so one in 200, and many of those were lost rather than stolen. Not a big enough number for airports to start reconfiguring baggage handling.

American travelers are endlessly cautioned to not pack anything urgent (meds), expensive, not easily or quickly replaced (wedding gowns), or important (documents) in checked luggage because, well, sh!t happens. Even when bad actors aren't involved.

Lots of planes, lots of passengers, lots of baggage handlers, lots of opportunities for innocent slip-ups somewhere along the line.

https://www.transportation.gov/brie...eport-march-2023-and-1st-quarter-2023-numbers
 

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