A luggage thief with a rap sheet a mile long has been apprehended after brazenly stealing two bags from a baggage carousel at Atlanta Airport.
Atlanta Luggage Thief Apprehended…Again
Robert Allen Grimes is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. In broad daylight, surrounded by cameras, he stole two bags at Atlanta’s Harstfield-Jackson International Airport. Even though he was masked, police recognized him from previous incidents.
He was arrested and is back in jail after no less than 13 trips to the pokey since 1994.
Atlanta Police warned:
“As the pandemic restrictions ease, and people get excited about traveling. Don’t leave your common sense at home.”
That is good advice. Thieves tend to wait until most have picked up their bags for a given flight. Inevitably, there are a handful of bags left on the carousel. In some cases, this is due to passengers misconnects (contrary to conventional wisdom, customers and bags do not always have to fly together on U.S. domestic flights). In other cases, it is just due to passengers like me who may stop at the lounge or restroom before heading to baggage claim.
Even though cameras are a strong deterrent, don’t leave your bags on the conveyor belt if your contents are valuable.
I’ve written before about baggage thieves…isn’t it interesting that they frequently return to the scene of the crime and just cannot seem to help themselves?
> Read More: Southwest Airlines Luggage Thief Strikes Again
CONCLUSION
This is one of the many reasons I prefer to avoid checking bags. If checking a bag is unavoidable, you can still take reasonable precautions in order to reduce your chances of your luggage being stolen. That includes picking up your bags promptly after landing.
I do my best to avoid checking bags, especially on outbound flights but when I have checked bags, it is exceptionally rare for anyone to verify that I’m picking up my own bag. Once, can’t recall where, a security person was asking to see baggage claim checks before you could leave the baggage area. Otherwise it is a mostly free for all.
Phoenix has had baggage issues in the past.
Odd to see such a wide open baggage carousel. In normal times, you can’t get to your own bag or even see it because of all the idiots that crowd the carousel before their bags have even appeared. Everybody should stand back until their bag is visible, then walk forward.
That said, I try to pack very light so as to never have to check a bag anyway.
I’m impressed the police were able to nab him. He looks exactly like every person who lives in Paulding, Cobb, Cherokee, Forsyth, Douglas, Fayette, Hall, and Spalding County.
Agree totally with anonymous above, in all my travels it’s amazing how many people think their bag will not appear on the carousel unless they are physically right next to the moving belt !. Really annoys me to be standing 5 feet back so you and many others can look at all the bags, and have some idiot come and stand right in front of you.
Exeter international airport in Devon UK have a 4′ red band in the carpet round the carousel with signs saying keep back till you see your bag….. not seen that sensible forward thinking anywhere else in the world !.
Well, if you fly into MIA on AA, you can get off the plane, have a meal, finish your novel and then mosey to the carousel because your bags will take longer to come out than the flight you just took.
Why does he keep getting let out of jail??? He needs to stay there!! 13 times..He should also be banned from any airports.
Privieliged. Plain and simple.
I stayed in Atlanta with family in 2003, so we had a lot of bags and just abolute caos leaving the airport, only when arrived at the hotel realized didn’t have one of them, so decided to go back to the airport and didn’t know what to do.
So I took the subway and it leaves you right on the terminal a scalator or away from the baggage conveyors, seriously not even a door, and there it was my bag all alone still spinning around (after 2/3 hours), just pick it up and went back to the subway without no one even looking.
So everything surprised me -a wonderful subway, p
no security whatsoever, and my bag was still there (not stolen). Just bizarre.
This seems to be predominantly a USA thing. In most major airports in the rest of the world, baggage belts are located airside [and the exits often have huge ‘no return’ warning labels plastered all around].
It would be ideal to make them secure, but the infrastructure is simply not able to accommodate (at least now).
Airlines can easily fix this issue, but they are too cheap to do it, (they’re busy ripping you off); back in the day, at least in Boston, DL had the baggage area sealed off, and you had to present your luggage stub in order to leave with your luggage. It requires manpower, but it’d do a world of good and peace of mind to the customer.
We’re so far behind.
PHX is an absolute CF when getting checked bags. Never check bags there.
I would sure hate for someone to steal my dirty underwear and socks and my size 48 x 32 blue leans. Wow what a loss.