It’s often been said that there are two kinds of luggage: carry on and lost. The single thing that checked baggage has the most in common with is the US Mail. And sometimes for the same reason.

When you check a bag your things may get stolen. Employees may hide drugs in your luggage. Gate checked bags turn into gate tossed bags. Apparently this is an actual game that Alaska Airlines baggage handlers play.

I avoid checking bags whenever possible because I don’t trust United’s baggage handlers not to get caught in the cargo hold and I don’t want my bags there anyway since British Airways has had to ask staff to stop urinating in the cargo holds.

Here are baggage handlers playing toss the luggage off a easyJet flight at London’s Luton airport.

Here’s video of Air Canada baggage handlers tossing gate checked luggage.

But what happens when your cross the worst baggage handlers with the US mail? You get computers stolen from rural school children.

Ravn Connect is an Alaska Airlines partner flying regional flights within the Northwestern-most state.
For instance they have flights out of Barrow, operated by Hageland Aviation, with two peak daily prop plane departures to each of Point Lay, Atqasuk, Nuiqsut and Wainwright, Alaska. Six of their ramp agents have been indicted for stealing $489,000 worth of mail in the form of cellphones, cigarettes and chewing tobacco as well.

Ravn was authorized to pick up mail from the U.S. Postal Service Processing and Distribution Center in Anchorage and move it to Ravn facilities for placement on planes and delivery to villages, including the western Alaska communities of Saint Marys, Mountain Village, Stebbins, Unalakleet, Emmonak, Kotlik, Alakanuk, Aniak, Grayling, Kalskag and Koyuk.

These brain surgeons used a a Ravn truck to move the items they were stealing from the post office to the employee parking lot where they moved goods straight into their cars, and then gave items to family members and co-workers and kept other items in their homes. In other words they’re the dumbest criminals in the history of either baggage handling or postal service inspections.

(HT: Live and Let’s Fly)