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Two seasons of The Simpsons, my family Bible, Jocelyn's phone, and oddly enough a few pairs of socks. Fellow travelers, welcome to London and welcome to some of the things that have been stolen out of my check bags over the years. Today what we're going to talk about are things that you can do to reduce the chance that one, your check luggage gets stolen, but also reduce the risk that people will steal stuff from your check bags, all right? So, the first thing I want to tell you is realize that check bag theft is actually a thing. Whether it's people walking off with your bags or people slipping their hands into your bag to grab easy to grab items, okay? And I think one of the things you can do
when it comes to check bag theft and to reduce your kind of possibility that it happens to you comes down to the luggage that you choose. And the first thing I want to talk about is the color of your luggage. You know, the default color of luggage is a black suitcase. And here's the thing, those thieves, they know that black luggage all looks like black luggage. So, they have a default oops, oh it's my bag, I thought this was mine. I had the same black luggage. You know, they all look the same and that gives them a way out. So, if you do have black luggage, which is normal because it makes it less dirty and it lets right seems to last longer and keeps up, you
know. One thing I will tell you is you want to put something on there so you can notice it. For us, like I have my Walter's World, you know, um luggage tags that are bright green, right? I have those so I can see that. Also, we'll tie a little ribbon, you know, like the Christmas ribbon. We'll tie a little ribbon on there so we can see it. If you have a hard case, maybe put a few stickers on there so you can tell that's mine there because when you got 50 black bags coming out, it's easy to get them messed up. So, that's something to kind of consider. So, either buy other luggage, like we had one back in the day that literally had the Walter's World logo on it. It was a
hard case. Yeah, no one was taking that one. But that is one of the things, like my suitcase I have now is actually brown, so it's like, "Oh, it's different." And that can make a difference. Because those thieves, if they see that's a luggage people would notice, they're not going to take it. And also, going into the type of luggage you have can make a difference. Soft-sided luggage with all those zippers on the outside that you might put your itinerary in, or you might throw your laptop on the outside last minute, or you might put some documents there, or whatever, those little side pockets are easy to take things out of. And what you might not realize is sometimes you get theft in the security
line. Like, you might send your carry-on bag through security, and or through, you know, the checkpoint kind of thing, and you're waiting to go through. Well, while your bag is sitting at the other end, somebody else might take something out of there. TSA agents have told me they have caught people stealing iPads and other things from checked bags while the people were in the line, cuz people don't notice it, okay? So, those outside zipper things, maybe you want to reduce that. That's why some people would say it might be safer to have a hard-sided case, because hard-sided cases do not have those outside zippers,
those outside pockets. So, that gives it less opportunity to for people to steal things. Also, hard-sided cases, well, soft-sided case, I can cut it and get into it. Hard-sided, a little bit harder to cut through that hard plastic than, you know, fabric. Also, when it comes to stealing things from a hard-sided case, you have to open the whole case to get into it versus, you know, the side pocket. So, something else to kind of consider. Now, another thing that might influence the safety of your bag is when you check in. If you check in super, super early, like, "Oh, I'm going to be there three or four hours early to get my bag checked out so I don't have to worry about it." Remember, the longer
your bag is sitting by itself is more time for nefarious people to see it. Cuz I'm not going to lie to you, some of the people that take things out of the luggage aren't people that don't work at the airport. Sometimes it has been known that people that work in the airport might accidentally notice that there's something in a bag, and things disappear. I have friends that have lost jewelry, I have friends that have lost dresses, all kinds of stuff. And that's one of the things when it comes to cutting down on theft from your checked luggage, make sure you don't pack any valuables in your checked luggage. Your jewelry, money, credit cards, electronics, medicine, all of those things, they have value on the outside
market. You want to make sure that's in your carry-on, not your checked luggage. And with that time thing, I won't lie to you, when I've had really long layovers, that's when some of my stuff has disappeared. I was flying back from Lithuania and I had a 12-hour layover here in London. That's when my Simpsons DVDs disappeared, that's when my family Bible disappeared, that's when my socks disappeared, and these are different trips. So, that's one thing you might want to consider. So, another thing I do recommend you do, and this is one thing when people travel to the US, it blows their mind when they see that the baggage claim is just out in the open.
Like in the US, anybody can walk up and grab luggage off of the luggage line, and in Europe when you're here, no, it's behind security, so only passengers can get to it. So, one thing I recommend, especially if you're going to be flying in the US, you want to get to baggage claim as soon as you can. You want to be there for that first bag coming off, cuz if you're there and you get there in the 50th bag coming off, someone might have already grabbed your bag and left, and you won't even know until that last bag goes and it goes around and around, and then you realize, "Oh, my bag's not there." And that person's already in the parking lot, maybe out of the whole airport by then. Because the first bags
off are the easiest to steal. Now, another thing I recommend you do is actually put an AirTag or one of those trackers in your suitcase. And I'm going to tell you, those can be very helpful, cuz even if your bag isn't stolen or it but it's just lost, it's easier for you to look on your phone and go, "Oh, it's actually in Houston, it's not here in Dallas." Or and I've done that before where it's like, "Uh actually, it's in Arkansas. Why is it in Arkansas and not in Illinois?" Like these things can help find your bag, but often it also can get stolen. But I will say, you don't just lay it in there willy-nilly. You want to kind of tuck it away, so if it's a nefarious person that takes it, they
don't find it right away. And so, it gives you a better chance to find it. Now, another thing I recommend, there's some things you can do before your trip. So, if your bag does get lost or stolen, you have a better chance of getting the at least value of your stuff back. One thing, before you give up your suitcase at check-in, take a picture of it. Because when you lose luggage, your luggage is lost, they're going to ask you, "What's your luggage look like? Does it match the description?" And you go, "Here's a picture of it." And you can show it to them. That's going to be a lot better. But, don't just take a picture of the outside. When you're packing, take a picture of the stuff
that you're packing in there. So, you can say, "Look, this is everything that was in there." Because if you're filing a claim for lost luggage, you have the actual stuff there. Here's proof that's what I was putting in there. You can do that. And the thing is, it also helps if they break the wheels on your luggage, that you're like, "Hey, this look, I dropped this off and that wheel wasn't broken. You broke my luggage. You got to fix it." Cuz some of the airlines are on the hook if they do break your luggage. Now, another tip I have for you is your luggage tag doesn't have to have your life history on it. Look, your name and email is probably all you need on there. Maybe your phone number, too, if
they want to call you. Cuz here's the thing, if you put your home address on there and your bag is there and some weirdo is like, "Wow, you're kind of cute and that's your address. Now I have your address." You don't need to have those things on there, okay? Cuz if your bag is found, it's going to be based on your name, it's going to be based on the baggage claim stuff, and your address on there might not be so helpful. That's why our Walter's World Tags has three lines. My name, my phone number, and my email address. Then, that's where they can get a hold of me, so I can arrange where to send my luggage. Because if I'm traveling, I don't want them sending it back to the
US. I'm going to be here in London for a while. Send it to my hotel here in London, right? And even if you do want to have your address on there, I do recommend getting a luggage tag that has that kind of privacy flap, so someone has to at least open it to read it. It's not just out there showing. Now, another thing that people do to get into some of the luggage quickly, it's called the pen trick. Basically, you're thinking, "Oh, I've locked my luggage. They can't get in." No, they just shove a pen into the zipper and they pop it open. They can grab stuff out of there quickly. What I'd recommend is get a suitcase that has a tamper-proof like zipper that's on there. Or you have the suitcases that actually don't even have
zippers. That could be an option for you. But that's why sometimes it is one of the things you need to be aware of. And if you're going to get that kind of zipper-proof or tamper-proof zipper suitcase, that does cost more. And I know that is something that Luggage isn't a cheap thing. So it can be something that puts you off, but it's something to know. And I think that another thing I will mention cuz I said the lock on there, realize that your lock signifies a lot when you put it on your luggage. Cuz if you have one of those big TSA locks, you're telling to the thieves, "This luggage is very important. There's something valuable in here that I don't want people to steal." And if you think your TSA lock is going
to be safe, realize you can buy TSA keys online. You can find them online. Nefarious people can get them and unlock those things, no problem. So what you might want to do is yeah, use a lock or something like that. Or maybe like what I'll do is I'll literally take like the twist tie from the sandwich thing and I'll put it through there. Or if you got like a little zip tie thing you can put on there and cut off the ends. Just a simple little thing. The ones that I actually what I did on this trip, it's the key chain. You know the little loop on your key chain. I took that off and put it in there just to keep them together. Just so the zipper doesn't go apart. So it just looks like my bag is
kind of crappy. Maybe you could do that. But that's the thing you want to think about. Something's going to keep the zippers together, but it's not going to say, "Hey, this is really expensive stuff in here cuz I have a very expensive lock." That's something that the thieves notice. And the thing is when you're looking at the thieves, they there's a few things they're looking for, okay? The thief is going to ask themselves, "Can I do this quickly?" Hence why those first bags coming off, they can grab and go and they're out of there. If it's a you know, if it's a soft-sided one, can I just unzip it a little bit, grab something, zip it back up, and be out of there really quickly?
That's going to influence them. Another thing, can I blend in? That's why in the US when anybody can come up and look at luggage, as long as you look like you're somebody that could have got off a plane, you're going to fit in. That's going to be something that's easier for them, so be aware in those situations. And then they're going to ask themselves, can I get away with this without an issue? Or if I do get caught, do I have a whoops, my bad moment that I can get out of it? That's why a lot of times they target those black suitcases because everybody's got a black suitcase. Oh, my bad, here you go. I'll go look for mine and see if it's there and then people go on their way cuz we
don't really think people are trying to steal stuff from the baggage claim. But the thing is, if you notice anything missing, if your bag isn't there, report it right away. Have you ever noticed when you're at airports like, oh, if someone else took Mark Walters bag, could you please come back to luggage claim eight? Because they see that. The thing is, a lot of airports they'll have the cameras and you can see if your bag was there. They can track those people. The thing is, it's hard to know who might have got your bag. So, I don't want you to lose your luggage. I want you to have a great trip. I don't want you wearing the same underwear for 6 weeks on your trip. I want you to have
all your favorite things with you, but honestly, to make it best for you, I would say is don't ever pack anything valuable or anything that really matters to you in that checked luggage just in case. Anyway, I wish you all the best. I hope you have a great time traveling. Also, if you don't want these problems, just, you know, don't check luggage. Just do carry-on only. And we have videos that can help you with carry-on only travel. Anyway, I wish you all the best. I'll say bye from here in London. And hey, if you like to support lovely and helpful, fun, honest travel videos like this, think about becoming a patron on Patreon at patreon.com/waltersworld or becoming a member here on YouTube because your support helps us make these
honest travel videos to help other travelers just like you. Anyway, I wish you all the best. I'll say bye from here in London.
