Posted on 12/28/2006 6:34:19 AM PST by WestTexasWend
HOUSTON (AP) - Airline workers are trying to match 68 pieces of stolen luggage with lost claims while police search for clues into the theft of the bags that were found in a trash container outside a pet store near George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
The bags found Tuesday were from passengers of as many as nine airlines and all appeared to have been rummaged through, said Sgt. Nate McDuell, a Houston police spokesman. Authorities have not identified any suspects or a motive. They are interviewing employees of Pet City, who reported the luggage Tuesday, and people who may have handled the luggage at the airport.
McDuell said he was not aware of a theft like this involving so many pieces of luggage.
"This is certainly out of the ordinary," said Continental Airlines spokeswoman Mary Clark. She said she had never seen anything like this happen before.
Houston-based Continental is sorting through the baggage, Clark said, matching pieces with lost claims people filed. The bags were from international and domestic flights that were scheduled within the last week or so, she said.
The vast majority of lost luggage is simply delayed and is ultimately returned to owners within 24 hours, she said. "It's very unusual that theft is involved in misdirected luggage."
Linda Killion, the office manager at Pet City, said two employees checking in at work Tuesday morning saw suitcases peering from the top of an industrial trash bin. "That's how full it was," she said. The store had been closed since Saturday.
The bin, at the front of the store, had been brought in after a fire earlier this month.
A few of the suitcases were empty, Killion said, but the majority still contained clothes, books and other personal items.
The employees called 911. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security came to the scene, as well as local police. Houston police are now handling the case.
"It was quite an adventure for us, to say the least," Killion said.
Without question..... It's Bush's fault.
No airport, no lost luggage QED
George Bush's fault!
Nahhhh. too easy....
On TXCN, it was reported that most of the luggage was from International flights originating in Dubai, and London.
smells like Katrina refugees
Following my nightmare with United, concerning a theft from my suitcase while it passed through their baggage claim, I'm in favor of the death penalty for anyone who steals from luggage.
Call it air piracy and hang a few of them.
I'm not joking.
Interesting term. I don't remember ever referring to my own luggage as being misdirected.
It is probably tied to third person usage, such as his luggage or their luggage. I'm sure in the first person even airline employees refer to their own luggage with more appropriate terms such as "lost" or "motherf#$@ing stolen."
yet ANOTHER reason why I refuse to fly..I live in georgia and work in baton rouge..if I have another location I have to go to, I have a really big pop-up camper I take with me, use it on the road, get into a hotel when I get where I'm going, and use the pop-up on the way back..not to mention I get to see a lot of the country I'd otherwise not see..sure, it takes me a lot longer to get where I'm going, but it's worth it to me..
Wow, you must have been carrying something really valuable! I don't, in checked luggage.
Same experience here. I think it was Delta. Upon filing a theft-loss complaint, their attitude was something I'd paraphrase as: "How stupid can you possibly be to trust us?".
You plucked that right out of my mind. Wonder what was smuggled in that luggage?
I'll take the "or else", if it includes "open season" as well.
Now if only D/FW Airport could find that elderly lady they lost two years ago.
I say, a full patdown search of all baggage handlers, plus one of those "see through" machines that show all your body parts, as well as what you're smuggling out of the baggage department. Every single day, every single shift. Frequent random drug testing is a damn good idea, too.
Must be a new kind of security. No luggage, no threat.
United blamed the TSA, the TSA blamed United.
The supervisor at TSA actually said to me, not joking, 'Well, wait a few days and check eBay.'
I asked him how it was that employees could carry out seeming truckloads of loot under his very nose. He said, 'We're not concerned with what they take out... only what someone might put on the plane'.
It took me about 3 weeks, but I got a check out of United. I called the CEOs office and told them that I'd been approached by a TV station that had video of my bag being pilfered and they wanted to tape me as I watched the crime take place. A loca TV station was at that time doing a series on baggage theft; United agreed to settle on the spot.
And your 'first' reason for not flying is. . .?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.