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Problem
Airlines have lots of items left behind.
1 Once you are off the aircraft which has landed, they will probably refuse to let you board again to look for lost items.
2 A lost item could be taken by passengers, crew or cleaners.
3 A black jacket or suitcase could be taken by somebody else accidentally.
What experience do I know about?
Airlines have lots of items left behind.
1 Once you are off the aircraft which has landed, they will probably refuse to let you board again to look for lost items.
2 A lost item could be taken by passengers, crew or cleaners.
3 A black jacket or suitcase could be taken by somebody else accidentally.
What experience do I know about?
Passport Losses
1 Indian friends who lived in the same block as my family in Singapore lost her passport at Changi Airport. She said her passport was taken from the luggage trolley as she stood in the check-in queue. A group of lads had been standing, talking and larking about behind her.
2 My passport was stolen in Singapore along with everything else in a shoulder bag taken from me by what I later realised was a classic triple action. An elderly man behind me bumped into me from my right to distract me. I felt my bag go - my left arm felt lighter. I turned to see two younger men apparently in deep conversation. Presumably the nearest had slit the strap and passed the bag to the furthest. Or it was concealed between them under a newspaper.
When I reported the loss to the British Embassy in Singapore, I was shocked to learn that if anybody handed in the bag and passport and money, nothing would be returned to me. A sign said so. The embassy confirmed it.
3 A couple left their passports in the seat pockets of the plane. On the newspaper report, more than two pages of comments came from people who were unanimous in saying: do not put passports or other valuables in seat pockets. Nor anywhere else. Keep passports in your clothes' pockets or handbag.
Never put down valuables. In a second you can get distracted and your valuables could be stolen or you could forget.
Don't expect any help from anybody.
Stolen Passport Story
When my passport was stolen in Singapore, the British passport I was given cost me a lot of money and was only a temporary passport to get me back to the UK. That took three trips, to register my loss , deliver photos signed on the back to verify they were a likeness, and collect the new temporary passport.
At Heathrow, that temporary passport was taken by officialdom. I had to go to London after filling in more forms, getting more photos and spending more money to get replacement passport.
I had hoped that if my stolen passport was ever round or used, it might be returned to me as a souvenir of my travels, or with my photos intact. Or that I might be informed of the country where it was used and the nationality of the person fraudulently using it. Was it somebody in Singapore? Somebody from a nearby country such as Malaysia or Indonesia? Or a member of a gang from South America.
Stolen Bag
A friend from my South African book group had her bag taken by a South American in a shop in Singapore. She ran after him and a man with a walking stick, resting at the top of a flight of stairs was able to point to the ladies hairdresser which the man had run into to hide.
She ran into the hairdresser, asked if a man was there. Yes, he had run in and was in the toilet. He'd said his wife was having her hair done. Nobody in the shop knew him.
She told the shop owner to lock the door and call the police.
The thief eventually emerged and said, "I give you back the bag. I give you back your money. Let me go."
The shop owner retorted, "The police told me not to open the door until they arrive."
The police arrived quickly. An easy job for them. Three witnesses, the woman who lost the bag, the old man who saw the thief run past with the bag. The hairdresser shop owner who saw the man with the bag hide.
The police raided the place where he was staying and found a group of South Americans, supposedly on holiday, evidently a gang which had come to Singapore supposedly on holiday. Their rented flat was full of stolen bags and the contents.
The moral / lesson is this.
1 Never let anything out of your sight.
2 Don't put valuables down when unpacking.
1 Indian friends who lived in the same block as my family in Singapore lost her passport at Changi Airport. She said her passport was taken from the luggage trolley as she stood in the check-in queue. A group of lads had been standing, talking and larking about behind her.
2 My passport was stolen in Singapore along with everything else in a shoulder bag taken from me by what I later realised was a classic triple action. An elderly man behind me bumped into me from my right to distract me. I felt my bag go - my left arm felt lighter. I turned to see two younger men apparently in deep conversation. Presumably the nearest had slit the strap and passed the bag to the furthest. Or it was concealed between them under a newspaper.
When I reported the loss to the British Embassy in Singapore, I was shocked to learn that if anybody handed in the bag and passport and money, nothing would be returned to me. A sign said so. The embassy confirmed it.
3 A couple left their passports in the seat pockets of the plane. On the newspaper report, more than two pages of comments came from people who were unanimous in saying: do not put passports or other valuables in seat pockets. Nor anywhere else. Keep passports in your clothes' pockets or handbag.
Never put down valuables. In a second you can get distracted and your valuables could be stolen or you could forget.
Don't expect any help from anybody.
Stolen Passport Story
When my passport was stolen in Singapore, the British passport I was given cost me a lot of money and was only a temporary passport to get me back to the UK. That took three trips, to register my loss , deliver photos signed on the back to verify they were a likeness, and collect the new temporary passport.
At Heathrow, that temporary passport was taken by officialdom. I had to go to London after filling in more forms, getting more photos and spending more money to get replacement passport.
I had hoped that if my stolen passport was ever round or used, it might be returned to me as a souvenir of my travels, or with my photos intact. Or that I might be informed of the country where it was used and the nationality of the person fraudulently using it. Was it somebody in Singapore? Somebody from a nearby country such as Malaysia or Indonesia? Or a member of a gang from South America.
Stolen Bag
A friend from my South African book group had her bag taken by a South American in a shop in Singapore. She ran after him and a man with a walking stick, resting at the top of a flight of stairs was able to point to the ladies hairdresser which the man had run into to hide.
She ran into the hairdresser, asked if a man was there. Yes, he had run in and was in the toilet. He'd said his wife was having her hair done. Nobody in the shop knew him.
She told the shop owner to lock the door and call the police.
The thief eventually emerged and said, "I give you back the bag. I give you back your money. Let me go."
The shop owner retorted, "The police told me not to open the door until they arrive."
The police arrived quickly. An easy job for them. Three witnesses, the woman who lost the bag, the old man who saw the thief run past with the bag. The hairdresser shop owner who saw the man with the bag hide.
The police raided the place where he was staying and found a group of South Americans, supposedly on holiday, evidently a gang which had come to Singapore supposedly on holiday. Their rented flat was full of stolen bags and the contents.
The moral / lesson is this.
1 Never let anything out of your sight.
2 Don't put valuables down when unpacking.
3 Put everything into your internal zipped safety pockets.
4 Alternatively use a lockable bag which you keep on you.
Fire Alarm Story
I recently had to leave a building when a fire alarm went off. My bag, a few feet away, had to be left behind as we were all ushered out of the exit.
Fire Alarm Story
I recently had to leave a building when a fire alarm went off. My bag, a few feet away, had to be left behind as we were all ushered out of the exit.
Later, other people went back into the building and could have taken my bag, a person searching for the key to the office to switch off the alarm, assuming it was a false alarm, the firemen, any passer-by who felt like ignoring the alarm, anybody else getting back into the building after we were allowed to return, who managed to reach the room before I did.
At this point I realized the importance of always having your credit cards with you:
1 So the vital cards are not lost, missing, stolen.
2 So you can use credit cards to buy clothes, transport replacements for your bag and laptop left behind when you leave a bus, coach, plane, or building in a fire or other emergency.
3 You also need your phone on you to summon help. If you heard an explosion and ran, you would not run towards the smoke or terrorists looking for the phone which was only the other side of the room in your bag. You would race away and have no means of summoning help or telling anybody you were safe.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
1 So the vital cards are not lost, missing, stolen.
2 So you can use credit cards to buy clothes, transport replacements for your bag and laptop left behind when you leave a bus, coach, plane, or building in a fire or other emergency.
3 You also need your phone on you to summon help. If you heard an explosion and ran, you would not run towards the smoke or terrorists looking for the phone which was only the other side of the room in your bag. You would race away and have no means of summoning help or telling anybody you were safe.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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