It’s not totally uncommon to see bags stolen (or perhaps in some cases accidentally taken) from baggage claim belts at airports. In the past that was basically a lost cause, but thanks to things like AirTags, they can often be tracked.
Here’s an absolutely wild version of such a story, where someone in the miles & points community had their bag stolen, and then someone else tracked it down… hundreds of miles away, and with the help of police!
Bag stolen at JFK baggage claim, then found at DC bus station
JT Genter is a member of the miles & points community who travels full time. On Tuesday, November 10, 2026, he took to social media to share that his checked bag had been stolen off the Delta baggage claim belt at New York Kennedy Airport (JFK) Terminal 4.
He filed a Delta missing bag claim and police report, and pointed out how “so many irreplaceable memories” were lost in the bag, including all his clothing, medicines, all his toiletries, etc. And he claimed that Delta agents didn’t seem like they gave a you-know-what.
That’s obviously incredibly frustrating, though this is a story that had a happy ending less than 24 hours later. JT did have a tracker in his bag, so could keep an eye on the movements of the bag, but he just didn’t say so initially. Apparently the person had pretty quickly taken Amtrak down to DC.
But this is where the story gets truly wild. Jamie Larounis, another member of the miles & points community, coordinated with JT to help. Let me just share Jamie’s version of events:
This might be a story for the history books. Man steals backpack in NY. He takes Amtrak train to DC. I decided to play detective and found the thief with the backpack sitting at a bus station. He boards a bus, but luckily I caught the bus number. I found 2 extremely helpful cops to assist and they found the thief a few blocks away and they nabbed him. They asked me to get in the cop car to ID the thief, and we headed to the police station to retrieve the items.
Gotta say, I didn’t have being in a Metropolitan Police cop car on my bingo card today, but with a little perseverance we got this thief locked up!!! Huzzah!
When asked what was missing from the bag after it was recovered, JT shared that the guy ditched some clothing, supplies, and custom medical equipment, plus “irreplaceable memories.”
What was this baggage claim thief thinking?
When you consider the volume of bags that are checked, obviously a fair number get lost, stolen, etc. In theory, stealing a bag from a baggage claim belt is really easy — you just take it and leave. However:
- It’s on video, so it’s something that would be easy enough to trace, if you can get the police or airline to care
- The actual belongings are often of limited value, at least from a risk vs. reward standpoint
- So many people have bag trackers nowadays, which makes it quite easy to get caught
Publicly, we of course don’t know anything about this thief. Are we to assume that he wasn’t actually flying, and was just there to steal a bag? And of all the bags he could steal, why did that black backpack catch his eye? And was he planning to travel to DC anyway, and if so, was that the plan all along, or was that just the “escape” plan with the stolen goods?
I recognize that people stealing bags off of baggage claim belts probably aren’t the most sophisticated criminals, but in this day and age, you’d think that checking every pocket of the bag for a tracker would be a best practice, given how common they are.
Bottom line
A traveler had their backpack stolen off of a baggage claim belt at JFK after a Delta flight. Fortunately he had a tracker, which showed that the bag was taken down to DC on Amtrak. After posting about this online, someone else coordinated and played detective, and found someone with the bag at a bus station in DC, and with the help of police, it was recovered.
It’s nice when a story like this has a positive ending, and it’s also a good reminder to put some sort of a tracking device in your bag, for situations where your bag gets lost or stolen.
What do you make of this checked bag recovery mission?
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