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Items stolen from our luggage

SilviaC
Explorer B

Hi everyone,

 

Well looks like I’m not alone on this, on August 31, 2020 my boyfriend and I flew from San Diego back home to San Jose, I’m very particular about my luggage and since I travel with a lot of expensive items I always make sure that I secure my luggage with zip ties, I noticed that when we arrive at the San Jose airport our sip ties on our luggage were gone, so I as soon TSA had gone through Our luggage, I literally live 15 minutes away from the airport , once we got home I decided to open up my luggage and realized that all my expensive items were missing. To Christian Louboutin  Clutches were missing, my Gucci fanny pack, my special edition Gucci belt, my boyfriends Gucci belt, one pair of Christian Louboutin heels, and we had just shopped the day before at the Gucci store since it was my boyfriend’s birthday And bought a Gucci crossover bag for men and a Gucci hat. We literally ran to the car went back to the airport and talk to someone at Southwest Airlines to let them know what had happened. The gal at the counter responded by saying “ our employees are in capable of stealing” My first reaction was are you F’in kidding me everyone is capable of stealing. Another gal stepped in and decided to take a report. At the same time we call TSA to set up an investigation with them as well, the next day they called and concluded that TSA had never gone through our luggage. That same day I also contacted San Diego airport Police Department, I do believe they have an ongoing investigation, and the officer was very nice and sent me the police report right away. I then hear from Southwest airlines today, I feel like they have a generic letter that they sent to everyone who submits a claim with them, stating that they are not responsible for items missing within our luggage. I sent an email back to them today, asking for more than Just a generic letter stating that they have gone through an investigation and they don’t feel they are responsible for our missing items. I feel that with this letter they wash their hands and allow their employees to continue stealing from our luggage. They literally stole $7000 worth of items. Therefore I am going to continue to follow up on just a generic letter stating that they have gone through an investigation and they don’t feel they are responsible for our missing items. I feel that with this letter they wash their hands and allow their employees to continue stealing from our luggage. They literally stole $7000 worth of items. Therefore I am going to continue to follow up on How did they handled the investigation. 

I am still waiting to hear back from them, but I will keep everyone updated, because I think it is very unfair that we travel with an airline assuming that our luggage is going to be taken care of responsibly and that we will arrive to our destination with all our items in our luggage. 

8 REPLIES 8

Re: Items stolen from our luggage

TheMiddleSeat
Aviator A

I'm sorry this happened.  Just because TSA said it wasn't their problem you don't believe Southwest when they say it's not their problem?

 

--TheMiddleSeat

Re: Items stolen from our luggage

dfwskier
Aviator A

Sorry to hear that your items were stolen.

 

They could have been taken by Southwest employees, airport employees, or TSA employees. Which do you plan to blame, and why?

 

It's time for a reminder:

 

Don't pack expensive items in checked baggage. Carry them on board.

 

Don't pack meds or other items that you cant afford to lose in checked baggage. Carry them on board.

 

Your story is one that has been told many times, and could have been avoided by following the two recommendations above.

Re: Items stolen from our luggage

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

The zip ties were probably not the best idea in hindsight. Not that that the TSA locks are going to prevent the same thing, but at least your luggage wouldn't stand out.

 

The airline is stuck as well, they don't know that the items were in there originally, or could be stolen at the hotel without you knowing by the time you got to the airport, etc. No one knows for sure if this happened in San Diego or San Jose either. (Did it come out right away at SJC?)

 

It's a really tough system that basically requires you to ship expensive items in a way that can be tracked and insured, or to carry them on. 

 

Anyway - police report is probably the only way to go here and let them figure it out. Keep an eye on eBay or Craigslist if the items are personally identifiable in any way.

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Items stolen from our luggage

SilviaC
Explorer B

We noticed the items missing right when we landed at the San Jose airport, because the zip ties were missing. It couldn’t of happened in San Jose because as soon as we landed within a matter of 15 minutes our luggage was already arriving at luggage pick up. And we know it didn’t happen at the hotel because We packed the bags that same morning and they never left our site since we were in the room getting ready to head out to the airport. 

I’m sure that if Southwest goes through their cameras/airport cameras they will be able to see who opened the luggage. TSA had no problem sharing what’s on the cameras on their end

 

Btw I appreciate every ones feed back 

Re: Items stolen from our luggage

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

@SilviaC wrote:

 

I’m sure that if Southwest goes through their cameras/airport cameras they will be able to see who opened the luggage. TSA had no problem sharing what’s on the cameras on their end


Maybe you can find someone moving it around, the person whether SWA, airport, or TSA will probably know where to go without a camera though. But who knows, I’m always amazed seeing the news with people doing things that they obviously had no idea about the monitors on them.

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: Items stolen from our luggage

SilviaC
Explorer B

The reason I’m not blaming TSA or the airport is because there is a police investigation and they have checked their cameras/ And it does not show TSA employees or the airport employees handling my bag/trying to open it

Re: Items stolen from our luggage

SilviaC
Explorer B

Also the reason those items were packed in her checking bags was because we had gone shopping the day before and those were items that didn’t fit in our carry-on. We had packed most of our expensive items in our carry-on, and the items that were packed in the checking or items that were purchased a day before us flying back home

Re: Items stolen from our luggage

SilviaC
Explorer B

TSA actually sent me the full investigation , And they actually looked at the video/cameras when my luggage was going through which showed that it was never flagged, or checked by them