It’s by no means protected to let your baggage out of your sight

Does this sound acquainted? You land on the finish of a protracted flight, retrieve your baggage, and head blearily to the closest type of airport-to-city public transportation. You haul your bag onto a baggage rack and settle right into a prepare or bus seat, lastly relieved you possibly can let your shoulders down.

In case your reply is sure—then it’s time to alter your routine.

Authorities in Hong Kong have cautioned a brand new troubling development on the metropolis’s worldwide airport, whereby thieves goal passengers on town’s airport switch buses who’ve left their baggage on downstairs racks to take a seat on the top-deck of the buses. The South China Morning Publish reported that whereas there had solely been two confirmed instances from native police, one other senior police supply had confirmed that “there have been many, many instances involving vacationers who’ve come off flights touchdown in Hong Kong after which taken airport buses into town.”

This menace comes after one other identified theft tactic in Hong Kong has gained consideration: Thieves who goal the carry-ons of passengers throughout a flight. As one author detailed in one other piece in the Publish: “I used to be the unwitting sufferer of a very devious mid-air rip-off, shedding some US$three,000 from my carry-on baggage within the overhead locker above my seat. Each single US$100 observe was changed with a one-dollar invoice, fully throwing me off throughout a cursory verify of my belongings earlier than leaving the plane after a five-hour in a single day flight.”

The second rip-off is reportedly frequent on flights originating in Center Jap or Asian nations and certain for Hong Kong, based on officers. Passengers see their luggage within the overhead bins on the finish of the flight and assume the contents are as they left them; usually, they aren’t.

Whereas these reported points are localized to Hong Kong, they’re definitely deserving of vacationers’ wider consideration. The dangers of theft or property in relation to journey are often related to checked baggage—significantly when it’s outdoors of the passenger’s sight and put within the maintain—or as soon as they’ve arrived at their lodging. However more and more, refined thieves are going after individuals when their guard is down, akin to utilizing the rest room mid-flight or once they assume everybody else onboard an airport bus is a weary traveler identical to them.

As The Economist put it: “It’s accepted that con artists, pickpockets, and different unsavory sorts will gravitate in direction of new arrivals at a vacation spot. However planes are imagined to be a haven the place vacationers can sit again, watch a movie, sleep or work with a calming drink.”

The lesson right here is straightforward, if haunting: It’s by no means protected to let your baggage out of your sight. Simply since you’re in an airport, on a aircraft, or at a boarding gate doesn’t imply thieves aren’t there too. And in case you’re touring with giant sums of cash or valuables, do what you do in a non-traveling scenario: Don’t let it out of your sight.