Taipei airport baggage handlers caught stealing from luggage

Nov 25, 2009, 6:12 GMT

   Taipei - Three baggage handlers at the Taipei international airport were arrested for stealing cash and other valuables from passengers' luggage, airport police said Wednesday.

   'Three baggage handlers have been detained for stealing a purse containing 20,000 Japanese yen (400 US dollars) from a Japanese passenger's checked-in luggage. We are investigating if more baggage handlers are involved,' Liu Ke-chang, spokesman for airport police, told reporters.

   The Japanese man flew from Taoyuan International Airport near Taipei to Japan's Okinawa island on November 18. When he retrieved his luggage upon arrival, he saw that it had been opened and the purse was missing, so he asked Okinawa officials to inform the Taiwanese.

   During questioning Tuesday, three baggage handlers confessed to stealing from luggage for about two years, a Taoyuan airport police officer who requested anonymity told the German Press Agency dpa by phone.

   'They stole valuables while loading luggage inside the airplane's cargo hold, as there is no security camera there,' he noted.

   He said some passengers had reported losing valuables from checked luggage in recent years, 'but we could not pin down where the theft took place as some of the passengers changed flights several times, and some passengers were just transiting through our airport,' he added.

   Some 40 passenger airlines and 20 cargo airlines use the Taoyuan airport. About 60,000 passengers pass through it each day.