Originally Posted by
JDiver
Caveat: We delayed going to the carousel at MIA for a bath room stop. As we were arriving at the carousel area I saw a woman purposefully walking away with my well-marked wheeled bag. I double checked, stepped in front of her and said “That’s my bag you have there!” She let go of the handle, said “Sorry!” and dodged away into the crowd. I’m pretty sure this was an attempted bag theft.
That has happened to me twice at MIA, although I don't think it was theft (can't tell though, but it wasn't a solo person). One I saw it immediately because I was there, further down the beltway, the other was after I dallied and there was only a sad bag going around that only looked like mine to Mr. Magoo. (I didn't count the immediate one in my tally upthread).
The last one was resolved with difficulty - after absolutely zero help from AA baggage claim beyond taking my report (I kept saying I bet the person who took my bag is the one who left that one), I called the number on the bag tag for the one remaining bag. Thankfully, they answered promptly. When I said, after confirming that they just left MIA, that I thought they took my bag instead of theirs, I got the expected denial - "my bag is in my trunk". "No, I have it here". "No, it's in the trunk". "How do you think I got your phone number if not off the bag tag".
Not a fun wait for them to come back to MIA. Same thing happened at LAX. Moral of the story, if all else fails, call the phone number on the tag of the bag that's there when yours isn't.