Woman Picks Up Luggage After Southwest Flight, Finds Photo Of Man Taped To The Side

by Gary Leff

When you check luggage, and your bags leave your possession, you trust the airline to handle it with care. They’re supposed to take it to your plane, load it, unload it at the destination and deliver it to baggage claim. And nothing else.

But that’s not always how it works. One passenger recently got back his United Airlines luggage, but someone drank half his rare whiskey.

So maybe it shouldn’t be that shocking that a passenger on Southwest Airlines flight 725, which is scheduled from Raleigh to Dallas Love Field to Houston Intercontinental to New Orleans, received their bag back at baggage claim with… a photo of a man taped to the side of their luggage?

A CNN camera man learned that when his checked camera equipment was stolen and listed on eBay. The TSA employee who took it forgot to remove the CNN stickers before posting the listing. Baggage handlers have even been caught on video stealing luggage.

American Airlines once had to reimburse a passenger after her clothing turned up for sale on Facebook Marketplace, listed by a baggage handler. A Delta passenger had their panties stolen from checked luggage.

When you check a bag with an airline, the airline is responsible for it though they aren’t necessarily the only one that touches it. You may have seen the slips that TSA sometimes sticks into bags saying that they’ve opened and inspected it, for instance.

When you check a bag with an airline, the airline is responsible for it though they aren’t necessarily the only one that touches it. You may have seen the slips that TSA sometimes sticks into bags saying that they’ve opened and inspected it, for instance. So it isn’t necessarily the airline that causes your bags to go astray, even if they’re the ones you complain to when things go wrong.

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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  1. That is why colloquially, Heathrow is known as Theivesrow.
    I did laugh about the whiskey though. My bad.

  3. It seems like a hoax. If not, maybe someone intentionally put this on his own luggage to identify it, but it came off and some employee put it back onto the wrong bag. Seems unbelievable though

  6. I leave a paper in mine that says Owner has complete inventory of contents.

    I once got a smiley face drawn on it by TSA. Gave me a chuckle and nothing has ever gone missing.

  7. I take photos of everything in my bags, including my carry on. I’ve had my carry on “gate checked” more than once. I think I’ll start putting a note in them, too.

  9. ‘A Delta passenger had their panties stolen from checked luggage.’ Her panties, or was she using a plural pronoun?

  11. Another possibility comes to mind–this is a prank being played on somebody in the baggage system.

    @Airfarer:
    You can’t assume the passenger was the person intended to wear the panties. Passengers sometimes use baggage space to bring friends/relatives requested items. (Yes, panties are going to be available worldwide–but not always the same brands/quality level.)

    There’s also the possibility of them being a transvestite or that they were for some costume or the like.

  12. People have no decency anymore. Is it that hard not to steal? These losers should be put in a factory line working alone. They obviously can’t handle the most basic concepts..

  13. @ Loren

    Then one eliminates the pronoun. Her and their simply muddles singular and plural. If their is referring to the her, then it should simply read, had panties stolen. This, then, doesn’t imply a possessive.

  14. Had bags presumably stolen in JFK (airline tracking showed scanned into jfk but never left jfk). They must have been pretty disappointed as they got a bunch of kids clothes from Wally World. Annoying for me, but jokes on the thief really.

  15. The sad part is there’s ZERO recourse if the TSA streaks from you or damages your bag or contents. The airlines bear the full liability for the TSA, who sees a huge number of employees arrested for theft.

  17. Sam Brinton strikes again!! And again, and again, and again! Biden’s most entertaining / sick / undeserving employee

  19. A friend of mine always leaves a sex toy in their luggage (minus batteries if need be)…always so it appears immediately if the case is unzipped.
    Not once has anything been stolen from their case

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