Baggage theft a problem at Hartsfield airport

Register now, it's free!
Log In | Customer Care

Baggage theft a problem at Hartsfield airport

By TIM EBERLY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/18/08

An Atlanta police officer watched over the travelers' luggage at the airport. Then he spotted a man — someone he had arrested before — walking away from the Delta baggage claim carousel with two large bags.

When confronted, Willie Minter, 49, admitted the bags weren't his and offered an explanation: "Officer, I have a drug problem," he said, according to an Atlanta police report.

Jason Getz / jgetz@ajc.com

(ENLARGE)

Tiarra McMillan (left), 12, searches for her bag after flying in to visit her aunt Pepper Cannon (center) at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. With baggage theft becoming a problem, travelers should limit the amount of valuables they put in checked luggage and claim their bags quickly.

Jason Getz / jgetz@ajc.com

(ENLARGE)

In an effort to minimize the risk of baggage theft, travelers should be attentive when luggage appears on the carousel and notify police or staffers of suspicious people nearby.

Southeast travel stories

Photos: Travel / Southeast Galleries
Latest deals!
Back to: Travel | Southeast destinations

Baggage theft has been a problem at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in recent years. Between mid-May and the end of June, eight people including Minter were arrested at the world's busiest airport on charges of stealing luggage.

Airport officials say that's no more than usual. They could not provide statistics for baggage thefts, but it happens often enough that Atlanta police regularly go undercover to stake out baggage carousels.

"Things like this are basically crimes of opportunity," airport spokesman Herschel Grangent said. Baggage thieves are "going to blend in pretty well. They're just going to look like another passenger."

The majority of the thefts are committed by homeless people who lurk in the baggage claim area.

Some take public transportation to the airport, snatch people's bags and hop back on a train or bus, Grangent said. Others grab bags and make a beeline for a restroom, where they rifle through belongings, take whatever looks valuable and leave the bag behind.

"We do have repeat offenders that come back," Grangent said. "We're just doing our best to make sure we prosecute them the best way we can."

Larry Thomas, 36, of Decatur is one of them, according to Atlanta police. He was arrested in November 2007 on charges that he stole someone's baggage, according to a police report. On June 17, an Atlanta police officer watched Thomas remove a large black bag from a Delta baggage carousel and try to leave, the police report said.

The officer confronted Thomas and asked if he had a receipt for the two bags — including one that came from an AirTran carousel — with him. Thomas stuffed a hand in one of his pockets, then turned and made a run for it, the report said.

Police caught and arrested him. Thomas was charged with unlawful removal of bags and theft by taking — the same charges against Minter — and with criminal trespass. Thomas and Minter are both awaiting trial.

As officers were chasing Thomas, Andy Schwab, 30, of Newnan was at the Delta baggage carousel wondering where his luggage was. He and a colleague had just returned from a business and leisure trip to California.

A Delta staffer scanned his ticket and told him the baggage had already been put on the carousel, he said. Then another airport worker came over and told Schwab that police just stopped someone for stealing bags.

"I'll bet you it was yours," the Delta worker told Schwab.

They went to the airport's police substation, where Schwab was reunited with his luggage. Schwab's bag was not only filled with his clothes, but about $1,400 worth of motorcycle clothing and gear, he said.

"I was amazed that they stopped the guy," said Schwab, a mechanical engineer who travels often. "I was absolutely relieved to get my stuff back."

It's been about a decade since airlines stopped putting attendants at baggage carousels to check baggage claim tickets.

"It's something that has basically made it easier for criminals," Grangent said. "So we have to put other fail safes in place to keep that from happening."

If police don't catch baggage thieves in the act, officers can arrest suspected thieves for criminal trespassing at the airport, as long as they've been warned for trespassing once before.

It's difficult to know how often baggage theft happens, Grangent said. Many travelers whose bags turn up missing file a report with the airline, but don't file police reports. As a result, Atlanta police are trying to figure out a way to share information with air carriers, Grangent said.

From now on, though, Schwab is going to watch his luggage like a hawk.

"I'm going to be so much more aggressive now — stand right there when they pop out," he said. "You have to be."

Vote for this story!

Related Subjects

Expand this list

Comments

By Andre

Jul 22, 2008 9:30 PM | Link to this

Well now that you are being charged for your bags on most flights maybe part of that charge should go to cover the cost of baggage attendants. I rarely check baggage for fear of my baggage being lost or stolen.

By Andre

Jul 22, 2008 9:30 PM | Link to this

By Andre

Jul 22, 2008 9:28 PM | Link to this

By m russo

Jul 21, 2008 10:36 AM | Link to this

I like Turtles...

By harold

Jul 21, 2008 6:53 AM | Link to this

The AJC again pointlessly bolsters the image of public transit as the primary source of crime. Never mind the majority of criminals who drive motor vehicles. Let's mention Marta in a story about petty crime one more time!! After all, we need people to stay scared and keep buying cars so the AJC keeps getting entire sections of car advertisements. Too bad MARTA doesn't have the money to pour into ad sections in the AJC. Ah well, once the Internets kill off the AJC, hopefully MARTA fear will abate and this city may finally become a decent place to live.

By atltpa

Jul 21, 2008 12:44 AM | Link to this

Bring back the airport staff that used to inspect claim checks!

This is a must with the design of our airport-- otherwise more bags will be gone for good.

By Steve Skelton

Jul 20, 2008 7:26 PM | Link to this

Only a complete low-life scumbag (regardless of their ethnicity) would actually resort to stealing bags at the airport. I guess "Homeland Security" isn't going to catch them all, eh? There's got to be a better way to watch who comes in and out of that part of the airport. If you ask me, it's very much an unsecure area.

By Noelle

Jul 20, 2008 3:19 PM | Link to this

The first time I flew into Hartsfield (in 1999), there were airport staffers at the exits from the baggage area, checking claim tickets against luggage tags. I've never seen them again, and adding those staffers back isn't likely to work, so we need something automated instead. How about securing the baggage area with fencing and gates that can only be accessed in and out with the claim ticket's barcode? Limit access to flights with baggage on the way to or already in baggage claim, using the same system that puts the flight information on the electronic baggage claim signage. Minimal staffing would be needed, mainly to handle glitches in the system and people who don't bother to keep up with their claim checks or who show up long after their flights land.

By Erik Voss

Jul 19, 2008 8:37 PM | Link to this

It is hard to believe the answers you will get from airlines that completely shirk their responsibilities for checking baggage against the claim stickers always issues. They could insist or implement their own checking.

What is the point of these stickers if they are completely ignored by all?

On several occasions in the past I have complained, but each airline has passed the buck and said that it is the airport's responsibility.

At least in the past, bags have been stacked to the side of carousels because they got there early on a previous flight. Anyone could, and some do, simply grab one of these in such stacks and walk off.

Yet airports themselves could easily implement a security service for at least these, if not all, bags by checking bags just don't want to.

A will and the money are apparently the issue.

Apparently the additional wages for those who would check these are not important enough. While such implementation would improve public confidence in Atlanta's airport there is still the monopoly aspect in this regards.

Rather than being a city that cares about peoples personal property -- by taking a lead on this far spread issue -- by implementing serious security checks on baggage coming of the belts, Atlanta continues to lag and have customers' bags stolen.

Folks, this is just really a common sense issue. Let's please have someone, airlines or airport, please start checking bags against ticket stickers.

Rushing to the baggage claim is still critical at this point. In the meantime, pray you never are delayed in getting there for whatever reason.

By Karl

Jul 19, 2008 8:37 PM | Link to this

I've been flying in and out of Hartsfield since the late 1960s. I've checked baggage about 5000 times there and have never had a bag stolen. Delta lost my bag once on a trip to San Antonio, but it eventually showed up at my hotel a day or 2 late.
There used to be handlers at all the doors and if you had a bag, they wanted to see your checked baggage stub before you could go out the door. No longer providing this is definitely driving this stolen baggage event.

[1 2 3] next