Airport Accused of Extorting Travelers by Charging For Use of Lost & Found
Joe Cortez July 10, 2015
A man claims he was “extorted” by an airport when he tried to retrieve his lost laptop.
A Scottish teacher is speaking out about his recent experience at Edinburgh Airport (EDI), claiming the airport “extorted” him. The Edinburgh Evening News reports the man, whose name was withheld, was forced to pay nearly $30 in order to retrieve his laptop from EDI’s lost and found.
The man reportedly left his laptop in a seatback pocket by accident when he deplaned at EDI. Upon arriving home, he claims he immediately realized his laptop was missing and contacted the airport.
The laptop was retrieved by Luggage Point, a company contracted by EDI to operate lost-and-found services. When the man returned to the airport pick his laptop up later that day, he was informed by Luggage Point that there would be a £20 fee for collecting his missing item.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” he told the Edinburgh Evening News. “What gives [EDI] the right to take my property and hand it over to a third-party commercial organization, who are then going to extort [about $30] out of me or more to get it back?”
In addition, the man claims that no safety precautions were taken with his laptop and that a bunch of laptops were all stacked on top of each other behind the counter.
“When the woman staffing the counter said they had lots of Asus laptops, she pulled out this packing crate. They were just all piled in there, rattling around next to each other,” the passenger told the Edinburgh Evening News. “There was no putting it in a protective casing.”
A representative for EDI told the Edinburgh Evening News the airport works with Luggage Point to help passengers reclaim their lost belongings, but did not address the fees.
“Items found are stored safely and securely in the airport until we are able to reunite them with their owners,” said the EDI representative.
Luggage Point declined to comment on the incident. According to the Luggage Point website, retrieval fees range from around $3 for small items, to upwards of $77 for suitcases.
[Photo: iStock]
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I would have no problem paying this fee. The Lost and Found costs money to run and it makes sense for the beneficiaries to fund it.
After leaving my tablet on a plane earlier this year, Frankfurt airport staff retrieved it and mailed it back to me, all free of charge.
The guy is probably more pissed at his own stupidity than at the fee. If it was me? I would be glad that it had been turned in and I could retrieve it. Paying a fee for that privilege would be fine with me.
It's certainly not extortion (look up the legal definition). On the other hand, it is his property.
Is this seriously a story? LHR charged me 300USD and I thought it was a bargain to get back my 2k laptop with all contents intact.