Nevada-Las Vegas

My luggage was stolen from LAS airport!

Hey everyone, here's a long story but first, a travel tip regardless of airport; position yourself at the baggage claim so you can see your luggage come out of the baggage handling area.  If you don't, someone could walk off with your bag.  I'd also recommend making your luggage as bright and obnoxious as possible; if your bag is blue or black and blends in, less chance you'll see it and much higher chance someone will try to walk off with it.

So, now the story.  Wife and I fly in on Southwest at 2:30 PM yesterday.  Out comes the bags; we're on the first claim near where the Southwest missing luggage office is.  We're on the external side of the building and luggage gets dropped onto the conveyor on the side facing the middle of the building, so we did not have a view of our luggage until it came around the corner.

Our first two of three bags come around in the first 10 bags off the plane, the third never appeared.  We filed a claim, Southwest from yesterday through today had zero info.  AND, even worse, apparently Southwest doesn't even scan their bags as they traverse one airport to another, so they had no idea if the bags were in our origin city, in the connector or in LAS somewhere.

Fortunately the bag that was stolen was only my dress clothes, so I wasn't without stuff to wear, but of course it was several thousand dollars in suits and my wedding tux which I had brought back to wear on this trip.

Here's where it gets weird.  I was up till 5 gambling, came up to sleep, around noon I get a call from the owner of a local sandwich shop that they had my luggage tag and padlock (with the wire cut).  She explained a weirdo was in their store last night so after he left, they watched the video to make sure he hadn't done anyhthing while they were in the back cooking what he ordered.  They saw him try to secretly drop something in the trash can.  Went in there, and my luggage tag, padlock and the same for someone else's were in the trash.  They took them aside and called me and the cops this morning.

We decided to go down there, the cops showed up at the same time we were there, took a photo of the guy from the store's video camera playback and said they'd try to match the guy up to the video at the airport.  Well that wasn't quite good enough for us.  The store owner let me look at the video and I snapped some pics too with the intent on building a web page dedicated to identifying this guy, was going to post him on craigslist, etc. with reward offered.  Then, we google mapped a few pawn shops that were close to this sandwich shop. 

The first pawn shop said they dont' take clothes but gave us the name of a second hand clothing store.  As we drove to the airport to file the official police report, my wife starts calling that place.  They hadn't seen our clothes but gave us the name of two other stores that do the same thing.  As I'm filling out the police report, the cop who was at the restaurant showed up so he was there.  My wife is on her phone calling the third store name we were given and the person at the store not only recognized seeing what had been stolen in my bag, but they had his NAME AND NUMBER!  Apparently the dumb bastard wanted more for the clothes than what they offered him and the lady said well leave your name and number and the manager will be here tomorrow and she'll call you to see if she can make you a better offer.

My wife hands the phone to the officer, he gets things set up with the store so that the cops will go there tomorrow and tell the guy they're the manager and to come on in with the clothes because they can authorize paying him more than the clerk working today could.  When he shows up, he gets arrested.

So everyone keep us in their thoughts tonight and hope this greedy piece of sh*t shows up tomorrow with my stuff and ends up in jail.  Hopefully I'll even get some of it back but we'll see what he still has.

And, if you're in Vegas, please go buy lunch or dinner from Hougan's Racing Sandwich Shop - http://hougans.com/ They're only about a ten minute drive from the strip resorts.  This guy would have gotten away with this crime if not for their diligence; they even wanted to not charge us for the food we ate while we were there.  They're incredible people.

Married in Vegas - June 2011


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Re: My luggage was stolen from LAS airport!

  • katslackkatslack member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited March 2012
    wow, that sucks but I'm excited for tomorrow. Good luck!!!
  • edited March 2012
    WOW.. what an insane story!!
    Good luck, I can't wait to here the outcome.. hopefully they catch that asshat.
  • WOW! Thoughts and prayers go with you and your wife. I hope they catch himand you get your clothes back. I am for sure gonna be more on alert as I travel lots and I always check in my luggage.
  • Wow. What a stupid dude. Hope you get your clothes back!
  • Holy craps!  That is absolutely insane!!  I told FI about it (he's a CSI) and he can't believe you're getting it back tomorrow.  Good luck with everything!  Keep us posted!
  • edited March 2012
    Wow. I hope they catch him. People suck. SO sorry you had to spend your vacation investigating
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  • Sorry to hear that.
    Hope everything works out for you!!!
  • Ill keep my fingers crossed that you get your stuff back!  Do you get to be there when the guy shows up?  I'd totally wanna watch that up close!

    Awesome detective work :)
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  • Hope it all falls together tomorrow and you get your things back! What a horrible way to spend your time here, but if all works out tomorrow you'll get that all important tux back and this guy will be in jail. Not to mention this guys picture will be plastered all over the airport so he will be less likely to attempt to do this again. FI and I will definately be doing lunch at Hougan's in the very near future!!!!!
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  • Oh my god, that's crazy. Excellent detective skills though I must say! Hope you get everything back and he gets what's coming to him x
  • edited March 2012
    That is awful. Fingers crossed that they catch him and you get all your stuff back!
  • OMG-- what a horrible story! Soooooo glad he was caught!
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  • I really hope the 'sting' works out today!!! Soo sorry you have to deal with it but if y'all are able to help the cops put him behind bars then he won't be able to do this to anyone else! For awhile at least.
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  • HOLY CRAP.

    This actually happened to H at the Minneapolis airport a couple years ago, but we caught the douche before he tried to run out of the door with his suitcase.  We are extra paranoid now and try to get as close to the area the bags first appear on the belt. 

    I hope they catch your douche.  People suck. 

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  • Holy hannah!!!  Good luck, VG!  I really hope you get to slap the cuffs on him yourself ;)

    Now I'm glad I have a bright purple suitcase (despite FI's protests ;)). 
  • Holy crappola VG! I hope you get all your stuff back. That idiot should get what he deserves.
    formerly wiwicaty
  • Holy mother of god, what an a$$.  I'm praying that the a$$hole shows up today for BIG bucks and gets busted.  I wonder if he'll be on the "Vegas Jailhouse" show anytime soon...ba$tard.  Sorry you had to deal with this on vacation.  I will also check out the eatery for all that they did for you.
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  • SD210SD210 member
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    Wow, that is crazy.   Good luck and I hope they nail that a$$hole.
    Also, this is another reason why I put my work address (a business card) with my cell phone number on my luggage tags, but not my home address.  The last thing I want is some creeper thief knowing where I live.  Scary stuff.
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  • Yikes, what a crazy experience! Good for you and your wife for being so persistent. Hope they catch the creep.
  • edited March 2012
    Wow!!!  Way to be a great dectective!  I hope you get all your stuff back!  Keep us posted!!!
  • OMG! What a story! So glad that the shop owners were so helpful! Good luck with a positive outcome, and getting that dirtbag arrested! keep us posted!
    {Formally Hiltonsgirl}
  • That is the craziest story.  For sure let us know how it turns out.  Hopefully you are able to get all your stuff back.

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  • That's awful. I usually actually wait around the turn to avoid the smooshing of the crowd when I wait for luggage. Not anymoire!

    And the shop is not too far from my house so I'll have to stop by sometime
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  • No word from the police yet but thanks everyone! 

    Married in Vegas - June 2011


  • Hopefully this will at least bring the sandwich shop more business! I already emailed them about platters - i'm going to use them for day of sandwiches for us :)
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  • What a terrible way to start a vacation!!  I hope you get your clothing back and this sucker gets what's coming to him.
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  • OMG! Thats awful! Please let us know how this pans out! Hope you have a great vacation though! xx
    Am definately standing at the start when we go over! xx
  • What an a$$hole...I sure hope they catch him.   You and your wife make a great investigative team!  And props to the sandwich shop!  Thank you for the tip.
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  • No updates yet; he didn't show up at the store but the police did confirm the cell # is his, they're still working the case.  And the craps table has gone cold. :-(

    Married in Vegas - June 2011


  • Good news; the criminal and his roommate who apparently both steal luggage regularly (based on what was found in their car and apartment), showed their greedy as*es at the 2nd hand clothing store today to try again at selling my suits for a higher amount, the cops were there waiting, they're both arrested for grand larceny and sale of stolen property, the one guy's car is impounded and I have quite a bit of my stuff back. 

    Hopefully Southwest airlines will step up to the plate and replace the remainder of what wasn't recovered.

    Could not have done it without Hougan's sandwich shop; we called to update them and they said they've had a few calls from people on here already, thanks for everyone giving them business, great bunch of people there and two criminals off the street as a result.

    Married in Vegas - June 2011


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