Originally Posted by Section 107

Baggage theft is a regular and recurring issue for airport police departments. However, similar to bank robbery or hold-ups of cashiers in retail stores, (or even credit card theft) - the value of what is stolen has been deemed to be so far less than the cost of preventing it that most airport operators and/or airlines (because both have responsibility for this) choose to do very little in the way of overt measures. And customers are not complaining (much).

If/when there is a rash of thefts then active surveillance measures are implemented using undercover police officers and airline security personnel, FRT, and decoy bags. Once a bag is reported stolen, frequently the regular surveillance video is reviewed to pinpoint who took the bag and then then trace them out of the airport. I recall a case at DCA about 6 years ago a congresswoman reported her bag was stolen. The airport cops reviewed the video of the baggage claim area, identified the thief, tracked him to a specific taxi, found the taxi driver, determined a hotel the thief was dropped off at, and was then able to find the thief in a hotel room with the bag. When confronted, thief claimed the bag was his. Oh really? Great, please explain the ladies undergarments that are quite clearly many sizes smaller than you and what about these congressional papers - are you a congressperson/staffer?