Passenger Stole Her Info From a Luggage Tag—Then Sent a Disturbing Text

You put your name, phone number and probably email address on your luggage. You’re even required to put that information on regional jet valet tags. And that means it’s out in public, for anyone to see.

One woman experienced that in spades. She says she was sitting in the airport during a connection and received a text from a man who had found her phone number by looking at her luggage tag.

He actually misspelled her name – it isn’t easy to get a good look at that tag! – and said he found her attractive but offered, “I promise this isn’t as weird as it seems. Give a guy a chance?” She thought he should have approached her directly, and that would have been less creepy, but isn’t that even more intrusive? Except she realizes he now also has her home address from the tag.

@kir.a.lo Why are men? #creeper #creepy #greenscreen #ichoosethebear ♬ original sound – kirsten 

It seems like the answer here is to use luggage tags that have covers? Then you don’t need to worry if getting a text like that would bother you.

You give your number to pretty much every company you do business with, and all of their clerks have access. Airline employees could text you, too, though of course they’d be risking their job and other passengers don’t really take a risk.

Was it Wayne Gretzky who said, “you miss a 100% of the shots you don’t take?” But here she doesn’t know what he looks like or anything about him. An opener like “I work in finance, trust fund, 6’5″ blue eyes, give a guy a chance?” might work better?

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. If I was her I would have played along to get his full name and picture, then blast it all over social media, that would teach him a lesson, never put your address on your luggage, name and number only, I retired from a major Airline,they don’t need your address until after they have contacted you verifying it’s your bag,then they get your current address to return it to you

  2. My information is not on the outside of my luggage. I only have my initials and last name on the tag. Inside my bag, when I fly is a copy of my Boarding Pass showing only my Confirmation Number and my full name., black out the rest. If my bag is lost that is the information the airline needs to locate all of my information but not enough information to give someone who would steal my bag.

  3. The fact that you are making light of this is very disturbing. This behavior is threatening and creep. There is nothing cute or funny about this.

  4. Could the man be what we used to call a “masher”?
    Did he violate the law? No.
    Should you try to embarrass him on Social media? No.
    So, chalk up the experience up to being upset and put less info on your luggage tag.
    Some of the suggestions are juvenile. Ignore them.
    Be an adult and get on with your life.

  5. She put a tag on her luggage that displayed her name, address and phone number to the public. I don’t see anything as stolen. Her public service announcement is good.

  6. If you are saying “This isn’t as weird as it seems to someone.” then it probably is actually dozens of times weirder than you think it is.

  7. If you have checked in luggage under your own name with the airlines, the airline printed checked-in bag tag rather routinely has enough passenger info in order to pull even more info about the person. Also, there are often other ways to identify passengers at airports or other places.

  8. Have to agree with Angie on this. Making light of this kind of behavior isn’t cool. He crossed a line. What he did was creepy, stalking behavior. He intentionally made her feel uncomfortable and unsafe in a public setting.
    Next time the guy should man up, walk over and introduce himself and not hide behind his phone. Or maybe his ego is too fragile to risk rejection?

  9. The Moral of this story is-Don’t put too much info on your luggage tag, that way someone can’t figure out who you are

  10. This is why I use my work address, phone number and email on my luggage tags. You want to harass me at the LAW FIRM where I work? Bring. It. On.

  11. Saw a story on Dateline around 2004 about a pilot who stalked and harassed his (attractive) passengers. During the fright, he would walk through the length of the cabin and take note of the attractive women and their seat numbers. He would then access his manifest to match the seat numbers to legal names. Somehow he also got their phone numbers and would send them harassing phone calls (texts weren’t as popular back then).

    He got caught because the police was able to trace all the calls to an AT&T prepaid calling card and he either paid for that card with a Sam’s Club membership or with a credit card.

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