When you're traveling by air,
you must mark your baggage
for identification. It sounds
simple enough, but make
sure you consider your
safety.
Airport security personnel
tell us that robbers
sometimes work the airports,
looking for names and home
addresses on baggage tags.
As you're on your way out of
town, that information
becomes an advertisement
for an empty home - a
perfect target for a
break-and-enter.
Instead of your home
address, use a business card
or your initial and last name
as an identifying tag.
Whatever you use on your
baggage, cover the
information with a flap. Some
pieces of luggage come with
flap tags. If not, buy one
and attach it to your
luggage. |
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In general, you should never
let your baggage out of your
sight when you're walking
through an airport. If you're
checking in, keep your bags
in front of you, where you
can see them.
Don't check in too early; this
just means your bags are
out of your possession
longer than they have to be.
Even if your baggage is
awkward to carry, never
leave it outside the entrance
of a news stand or other
shop when you go in, and
don't ask a stranger to
watch it. Keep it with you.
Treat a shoulder bag as you
would a purse; something
that could easily be
snatched. |
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Don't make it too easy for a
thief to lift valuables such as
your camera or wallet, or
important documents like
your passport, keep your arm
over the bag and never leave
it open.
When picking up your
luggage at the carousel,
make sure that it is actually
your own, not a look-alike
(just check the tags). And if
you have several pieces of
baggage, don't leave one
unattended on a luggage
cart while you look for the
others. Keep all your bags
right by you, in plain sight.
Your luggage could
sometimes be a target to a
thief simply by its
appearance; expensive
luggage, the logic goes, may
contain expensive items.
Consider plainer luggage. |
