Houston trash bin is final destination for stolen baggage

HOUSTON — Flying to Houston, a busy airport hub, for the holidays? It might be best to avoid checking bags.

Earlier this week, 68 suitcases taken from George Bush International Airport were found in a trash bin outside a Houston pet store, the work of what authorities think is a band of brash luggage thieves.

Was it an inside job or did the thieves walk into the baggage-claim area and snag dozens of suitcases from carousels without anyone noticing?

Houston police, who are investigating along with the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, are saying little. But they have determined the stolen luggage came from nine airlines.

"Some of the luggage appears to be from international flights," Houston police spokesman Gabe Ortiz said.

Carol Stack, owner of the Pet City store where the luggage was ditched, said the business recently had been burned in a fire, so an unusually large trash bin was left in front of the store for charred debris.

The morning after Christmas, her workers went out to discard some junk when they noticed the bin was already packed with luggage, much of it containing clothes and other belongings.

"This is a very big Dumpster, and it was just jammed full of luggage with the tags still on it," Stack said. "There were bags from France, the United Arab Emirates."

Like most U.S. airports, Bush International does not check luggage tickets at baggage claims before allowing people to leave with suitcases. Airlines say that stopping each person to check bags is unnecessary and would cause substantial delays at airports, further testing the patience of passengers weary from security requirements instituted after Sept. 11.

"We can always check tags when there is a need and periodically do," said Mary Clark, a spokeswoman for Continental Airlines.

"But the number of bags that do not arrive with customers is less than 1 percent, and the number stolen is even smaller, so we are not talking about a major problem."

Catherine Mayer, vice president of airport services for SITA, a company that designs airport-luggage systems, agreed that the number of bags lost is relatively low considering how many are checked.

But she said it has been rising, according to Transportation Department statistics, and perhaps could be reduced with more automated systems tracking bags as they travel from airplane to carousel.