The Land of Lost Luggage

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Published: July 7, 2007

Visitor Comments: 13

(13) Anonymous, August 1, 2010 7:19 AM

Judiaca?

I wonder if there is any Jewish person/organization looking through this stuff to buy items like tefilin, seforim ...etc.

(12) LindieLee, January 20, 2008 12:50 PM

Unclaimed becuase the airlines lost it.

Greater effort should be made to return the lugged to the owners.

I personally, put a large note in my luggage with my address in it. However,

I don't know it anyone really looks in the luggage to find any idenification.

Looks to me that the airlines and the town in Alabama are making a

prophet over the sloppy handling of baggage. What percentage of these

bags are truely unclaimed, meaning no one showed up to find them? I certinaly can understand truley unclaimed, unwanted or abondoned luggage being sold off but I presume thats a very low number. Perhaps, we can better mark luggage for our own protection of there can be a see through window or pannel where we can put identifican that can be seen from the outside?

(11) Sharon, July 12, 2007 10:20 PM

These are a few of my favorite things.

There's a simple joy and satisfaction in being able to use something for a long time. The favorite shirt, chair, toy, recording...is the one that you find yourself using time and time again until it wears out. Maybe if we accumulated less stuff, more of the stuff we already own would acquire "favorite" status.

(10) Beverly Kurtin, Ph.D., July 12, 2007 1:12 PM

It's Hard to be Green

The co-president of a major United States company usually starts his talks by bashing one airline. He says he won't say who they are, but their motto should be Don't Expect Luggage To Appear."

I toss out a lot of stuff I don't need or want. Resentment towards others, feh, who needs that? Jealousy has go to go into the trash as soon as it starts. Lashan hara, bad speechâ€”gossip. I really don't throw it out, I just don't listen to it in the first place if I can avoid hearing it.

Prejudice had to go too. There are times that I find that I need to consciously have a talk with myself as to why I have a negative feeling towards someone I don't know. So I toss it out by starting a conversation with the person in question. I'm not thin, but very, VERY obese people used to make my physically ill by just looking at them. Now I say, "Hi, don't you just love this heat?" (I live in Texas.) I've found them to be, for the most part, very nice people who either have medical conditions or just can't stop eating. But they are, after all, fellow human beings.

Arabs, however, still put me on guard. So I sometimes will start a conversation, but being a woman trying to talk with someone who feels I am beneath them, wellâ€¦but I try, I try.

Instead of using disposable batteries, I try to use rechargeable batteries whenever possible. Paper usually doesn't get a chance to get printed on, I use .RTF (rich text format that can be used by most word processors regardless of the original program that created the text. I also use .PDF quite a bit. There are several free converters on the market. Cute PDF, for example, costs nothing and I don't have to print them, I either attach them as an email attachment or file them the way they are. The main exception is when I have articles like this week's "The Earth is Flat" that needs to be printed and handed out to as many people as possible.

Even water bottles get reused two or three times. Then they're sterilized with a mixture of bleach and water and used again.

But you know something? Kermit had it right when he said, "It's hard to be green." But it fun, too!

(9) Joey, July 11, 2007 6:37 PM

I agree with Annette, there should be better ways to return baggage to its owners, though, if there is luggage that is never claimed and would otherwise be thrown out, I think it can be sold. But even then, it would be better to donate it to the Salvation Army or some other form of charity.

God bless.

(8) Annette, July 11, 2007 8:32 AM

it was LOST by airport staff, not discarded by owner

In March of 2007 my 9:15am flight from Toronto to Newark finally left at 11pm. And my luggage was nowhere to be traced for over 6 hours along with MANY others. I was dismayed at how many people work at the airport, so many systems in place, and the poor service so many people got that day due just because of cancelled flights. My sister's direct flight San Francisco to Hong Kong also had lost 2 of her luggage. The airports need to simplify themselves; there is no excuse for so much 'lost luggage'. The only luggage we'd want to lose is if we needed to detonate a bomb. It's all well labelled if not by owner, by the airline staff. A central baggage consortium for all the airlines would be a good start.

(7) Aliza, July 10, 2007 9:07 PM

Waste not want not

Freecycle.org is a great place for recycling things you don't want anymore - someone else will surely want it and put it to good use.
Just this past week, I asked for (and received) an good (though old), perfectly operable sewing machine. I also got rid of a coffeemaker, a coffee grinder and a mini cusinart.

(6) Elli Gigi, July 10, 2007 2:35 PM

..good point

I want to shop at the United Baggage Center.

(5) Dvirah, July 9, 2007 10:40 AM

Careful Does It

This airline policy sounds full of danger and raises many questions. In most cases, people do not leave their luggage at the airport on purpose. Most of the time the luggage has been misdirected and is not picked up because the owner went on one flight while the luggage went on a different (wrong) flight. In such cases the people look for their luggage, complain to the airline and wait for their luggage to be returned. So, how hard does the airline look, and how long do they wait before selling? Is it more profitable to sell then return the luggage? Could luggage be deliberately shunted to a wrong location because of the profit made in selling what has not been picked up? What of the contents? Is that sold too - generating yet more profit?
While I can understand that selling a reusable item is much better than just throwing it away, lost luggage is NOT the same as throwing something out! It is a serious loss for a person who most likely is away from home and has limited resources in replacing necessary personal items. Most luggage has identification and a strong effort should be made to return it to the owner. This policy is likely to make the airlines negligent.

(4) Ryan, July 8, 2007 12:16 PM

Important information

Very insightful, I'm glad to have heard it.

(3) Zissi, July 8, 2007 10:29 AM

E-bay

My sister-in-law and husband buy and sell items on e-bay and my brother and sister-in-law sold an old bed and chandelier on Craigslist. Otherwise, they would have been thrown out. We also waste food at simchas. There are organizations which get leftover food from simchas and give it to the poor.

(2) dani, July 8, 2007 8:45 AM

By making a business out of lost property you are

Encouraging theft. Employees will eventually deliberately steal the luggage to make money. Furthermore the owner can be found(records of the ticket) and there are unique signs
on the luggage so I do not see how it is possible to allow such a thing.

(1) Rosen, July 8, 2007 6:59 AM

reallocating items and recycling

Good rule of thumb to know about what goods we either hold onto or throw out. As for electronics we no longer use such as old computers and cel phones, they can be either donated and/or recycled for a decent tax deduction. For me personally, I had a couple of nice Game & Watch (Nintendo) games when I was younger, which were quite fun to play, however they may have been tossed out in the garbage or misplaced somehow. Sometimes, one can find their misplaced items or that of a replica on E-bay. All in all, it's best to know the 3 R's - reduce, recycle, & reuse.

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About the Author

Rabbi Yaakov Salomon

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Rabbi Yaakov Salomon, C.S.W. is a noted psychotherapist, in private practice in Brooklyn, N.Y. for over 25 years. He is a Senior Lecturer and the Creative Director of Aish Hatorah's Discovery Productions. He is also an editor and author for the Artscroll Publishing Series and a member of the Kollel of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath.

Rabbi Salomon is co-author, with Rabbi Noah Weinberg, of the best selling book "What the Angel Taught You; Seven Keys to Life Fulfillment," (Mesorah), and is also the co-producer of the highly-acclaimed film, "Inspired."

Click here to order Yaakov Salomon's new book, Salomon Says: 50 Stirring and Stimulating Stories.

In these marvelous stories -- brimming with wit, understanding, a touch of irony and a large helping of authentic Torah perspective -- we will walk with a renowned and experienced psychotherapist and popular author through the pathways of contemporary life: its crowded sidewalks, its pedestrian malls, and the occasional dead end street. This is a walk through our lives that will be fun, entertaining -- and eye-opening. In our full -- sometimes overfull -- and complex lives, Yaakov Salomon is a welcome and much-needed voice of sanity and reason.

His speaking, writing and musical talents have delighted audiences from Harvard to Broadway and everything in between. Rabbi Salomon shares his life with his wife, Temmy, and their unpredictable family.