A New Jersey woman feared she lost her 25th wedding anniversary ring at Newark Liberty International Airport — but, luckily, it was found by a TSA agent who knows her diamonds.

Navnett Guleria, 52, said she took the ring off and hooked it to a bracelet inside her purse to step through a security checkpoint at the newark aiport lost and found on Feb. 14.

The Pennington woman didn’t think to put the ring back on until after she boarded a London-bound plane with her husband, but the wedding band was nowhere to be found.

“I panicked,” she told The Star-Ledger. “I was really upset, but the cabin was already closed.”

Guleria believed she would never see the ring again, but still contacted the Transportation Security Administration’s lost and found office when she returned home 10 days later.

To her surprise, an employee told her the ring had been found.

Officials said another passenger spotted the ring on the floor at the checkpoint and handed it over to TSA Officer Meredith Grillos.

When I saw it, I knew right away it was absolutely real,” the officer said in a statement. “It was beautiful. I know my diamonds and I’m sure the woman was very distraught.”

Grillos gave the ring to the agency’s lost and found office, which mailed Guleria her wedding band a few days after she called.

“I was ecstatic,” Guleria told the newspaper. “I was so happy.”

Source: NYDailyNews.com

Lost something at the airport? File a lost item report and we'll help connect you with the right airport or airline lost and found.

From jars of honey to diamond engagement rings, it all ends up in the Transportation Security Administration’s Lost and Found office. And for this week in particular, Super Bowl XLVII memorabilia items from fans at the game — like a seat cushion and ear muffs with the logo on it — are turning up in the office.

For items found at Newark airport, that means a small, gray, windowless room on Kean University’s campus in Union, where closets filled with forgotten coats and sunglasses to bins of smart phones and jewelry line the walls. The TSA has a property custodian that brings the leftover items to the office daily, where they are then sorted by date and security checkpoint, said Ofelia Ruiz, TSA customer support manager.

“It’s a shame some of the items — you can tell they have sentimental value,” Ruiz said.

The items most commonly left behind by passengers rushing through security are belts, keys and electronics, Ruiz said.
Continue reading →

A former Transportation Security Administration supervisor at Charlotte Douglas International Airport was arrested Thursday morning, after allegations he stole from the airport’s lost and found.

TSA officials said Wednesday that Angel Caban, 33, was fired after the theft accusations surfaced.

On Thursday, public records show Caban was arrested and charged with one count of misdemeanor larceny. He was being held in Mecklenburg County’s jail under $500 secured bond.

According to two airport officials familiar with the case, Caban was accused of stealing electronic items from the lost and found.

Caban does not appear to have any criminal history in North Carolina, according to public records.

TSA Administrator John Pistole has made stopping theft one of his priorities, implementing harsher penalties and conducting random sting operations to test employees by leaving valuables at checkpoints

Lost something at the airport? File a lost item report and we'll help connect you with the right airport or airline lost and found.

There are laptops and cameras, passports and drivers licenses from all 50 states, plenty of luggage and bags, stuffed animals, jewelry and belts.

Then there are the rare items like a violin, binoculars, false teeth and a prosthetic eye. Every year, 30,000 items show up inside Sea-Tac Airport’s lost and found — all of them left behind in the airport terminal or the TSA Security line.

But all that stuff is not what makes the lost and found so special: It’s the people who work there.
Continue reading →

Nine members of staff at Heathrow Airport have been arrested on suspicion of stealing items from lost property, police have confirmed.

The suspects, six men and three women, are accused of being involved in 43 separate thefts, between May and September this year.

Aged between 24 and 63, they were arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service’s aviation security command at the west London airport and at residential properties.

They have all been suspended and are currently being held custody.

A spokesman for the airport, which handled 70 million passengers last year, said: ‘Heathrow Airport recently contacted the Metropolitan Police to ask them to investigate a report of the possible theft of items from airport lost property.

‘Following an investigation, the police have today arrested nine Heathrow employees. 

‘The employees in question have been suspended while the police complete their investigation. 

‘We take any report of criminal behaviour seriously at Heathrow and will be taking appropriate action if there is a case to answer.’

Police said searches are under way at a number of locations.

Superintendent Martin Hendy said: ‘Police at Heathrow work together with our partners at the airport to ensure that any allegations of criminal activity are robustly investigated to ensure the travelling public and staff at the airport enjoy a safe and secure environment.

‘Today’s arrests support that commitment.’

Lost something at the airport? File a lost item report and we'll help connect you with the right airport or airline lost and found.

As the song goes, the cat came back, although not the next day.

A feline that escaped his carrier on his way to board an Air Canada flight Saturday has been found.

Owner Pat Torlen got a call from cargo employees at 3 a.m. Thursday morning saying that her cat, Lightning, was spotted in the cargo building. He was retrieved at 8 a.m. from under a tank where he was hiding.

Lightning was supposed to fly cargo, along with sister Cricket, to Vancouver on Sept. 21. Torlen and the rest of the family would follow a week later.

When Torlen dropped them off at the airport, she secured the sides of the cat carriers with straps and ensured the doors were firmly shut.

Just before the flight, Air Canada called Torlen to tell her Lightning escaped.

“They told me the last time they had seen Lightning was when he was in his carrier on the baggage cart.”

Air Canada cargo staff said they think the carrier case door bumped open on the way to the plane. They searched for the missing cat with no luck. Torlen was even invited into the restricted area to look for the escapee. Within hours, complete strangers were volunteering their time to help find the feline.

Torlen said she would not go to Vancouver until Lightning was found.

“I’ll say here as long as I can and stay with family and friends and continue the search,” she said.

Now with Lightning safe and sound, Torlen can fly out with her family this weekend as planned.

With a report from Alesia Fieldberg

Lost something at the airport? File a lost item report and we'll help connect you with the right airport or airline lost and found.

A Passenger at heathrow airport catching London based Virgin Airlines left a prosthetic limb behind. Airport staff found the prosthetic limb in the washroom and it was successfully returned to the owner. For more information and details about this situation..

It is comprehensible that in their rush to disembark, passengers often leave behind their belongings such as mobile phones, iPods, reading glasses and books in the aircraft. But how does one explain leaving behind a prosthetic limb?

It begins as soon as the aircraft docks into its bay. A sense of urgency takes over the passenger cabin as overhead bins are opened, bags and belongings gathered. Passengers pour into the aisle. Some rush to join the queue to disembark and quite a few leave behind their belongings. Generally these are things with an inherent potential to get misplaced like reading glasses, headphones, CDs and like. But London-based airline Virgin Atlantic recently carried out a survey among its cabin crew members and ground staffers to find out what objects passengers often forget to take, and got a bizarre list that had more than the usual suspects.

The most frequent items left behind by flyers were books, reading glasses, mobile phone, cameras, headphones, makeup kits, neck pillows, CDs and duty-free shopping. A few even forgot to take valuable items such as passports, iPods, iPads, kindles, laptops and even wedding rings.

In 2011, a passenger on board a London-Delhi flight left behind his artificial limb. But how did he walk out of the aircraft?

“He had an injury and must have removed his limb to relax. He disembarked in the wheel-chair and a while later our crew found the leg,” said the airline spokesperson. The strangeness of the list does not surprise the airline.

“Passengers leave all sorts of items on our flights ranging from the predictable to the quite unexpected.

We were surprised to find the artificial limb left behind by one of our Upper Class passengers and were happy to reunite them,” said Stephen King, general manager, Virgin Atlantic-India.

He added that many passengers start their vacation the moment they get on the aircraft and they relax into their holiday mood, they often forget personal belongings onboard.

The forgetfulness can extend to even the absolute essentials, like shoes. “Some passengers change into a comfortable pair of footwear once on board, and then forget to change back into their shoes,” said the spokesperson.

If one thought that large, conspicuous objects are not likely to left behind, the list disproves that. One passenger had left behind a baby stroller after the flight landed in London; another common item was wedding rings. The marital band is apparently a common item that is left behind. Evidently, quite a few passengers remove their rings on board Virgin’s flights.

“Virgin Atlantic tries to return the forgotten items to passengers. And, any item that is not claimed for more than six months, if not perishable, are donated for charitable causes,” the airline spokesperson said.

Lost something at the airport? File a lost item report and we'll help connect you with the right airport or airline lost and found.

A STANSTED Airport worker who stole property lost by passengers – including a £600 iPhone – was today (Monday, September 9) spared jail by a court.

Jason Cates, 44, of Vicerons Place, Thorley Park, who worked for the “lost and found” unit of the airport, Bagport, was instead put under a 12-month community order by Chelmsford magistrates.

As part of the order he must carry out 200 hours’ unpaid work and pay a £60 victim surcharge and £80 costs.

He pleaded guilty to two offences of theft, involving cigarettes and the iPhone, and to possessing 19.2g of cannabis which was found at his home.

Ian Jackson, mitigating, said that as a result Cates had lost his well-paid job.

Prosecutor Angela Hughes said that Cates’s manager noticed some items had gone missing – mainly cigarettes – and kept vigilant.

On June 21 he saw Cates in one of the cage areas with a bag open. On that occasion he stole cigarettes worth £8.50.

Police were called and he was arrested. During a search of his house officers found in a wardrobe an iPhone stolen two weeks before. They also found the cannabis.

Probation officer David Clayton told the court that there did not appear to be a pattern of behaviour and said that there was a low risk of Cates reoffending.

“The offences were committed out of financial hardship, but he had a moral dilemma and couldn’t sell the iPhone and didn’t know what to do,” said Mr Clayton.

“He’s now a host in a car park at the airport and said he’s going to be quitting his cannabis habit.”

Sentencing Cates, chairman of the bench Fred Tomlin told him: “This was theft and a high degree of trust.”

Lost something at the airport? File a lost item report and we'll help connect you with the right airport or airline lost and found.

A lost pair of sunglasses might be chalked up to carelessness. A missing gold chain could have slipped off in a hotel room. Even an iPhone could have been misplaced in a rush to get through airport security. But eventually, it seemed clear that something was amiss in the baggage hold of El Al Airlines.

The mysterious trickle of disappearing items continued for months, and passengers at JFK Airport complained until the airline’s officials installed a video camera in the luggage hold. Then, the authorities said, they found the culprits.

Seven baggage handlers working on contract for the airline, which regularly flies between New York and Israel, were seen rifling through the bags that they were hired to load and unload onto the airline’s 747 aircraft, officials said.

They filled their pockets and their pant legs with cash, jewelry, cameras and computers — and even stole a $5,000 Seiko watch and a Sony PlayStation, officials said.

“When air travelers check their luggage with an airline, there is an implicit trust that their bags and their contents will meet them at their destination,” the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said in a statement on Friday. “It is always disheartening as a traveler to find that trust to be broken.”

The baggage handlers were identified as Tristan Bredwood, 22; Udhoo Doodnauth, 27; Julio Salas, 44; Dashawn Schooler, 25; Romaine Smith, 25; Oshaine Christie, 22; and Nkosi Cunningham, 24. None have entered pleas.

Mr. Smith and Mr. Cunningham were released on their own recognizance but ordered to return to court in the fall. The rest remained held, with bail set at $1,000. The authorities said the suspects admitted to stealing many of the items, some of which were later recovered from their homes and cars.

They were all arrested Wednesday, arraigned Thursday night in Queens Criminal Court and variously charged with third- and fourth-degree larceny, third-, fourth-, and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, fourth-degree criminal mischief, petty larceny and attempted petty larceny.

Lost something at the airport? File a lost item report and we'll help connect you with the right airport or airline lost and found.

Have you traveled to London or had a layover in Heathrow and realized you left something? The following information may help alleviate the frustration and annoyance that typically accompanies an experience that requires the services of an airport Lost and Found.

Heathrow lost and found helpfully uses technology to assist you in locating your lost items. If it’s been handed in, it will be entered in their database and available for search online within 24 to 48 hours. You must also input a date range to perform a search. The fourth field is optional, allowing you to enter a search word. You may narrow the results found by selecting from available categories that are displayed next to your results.

Did you strike pay dirt? Awesome! Highlight the line item and click on it. A new box opens with more details about the found item. If you believe this is what you are seeking, click on the “Contact Form” box in the top right corner or the “Contact form” link next to the Email field within the information box. This initiates the matching process to discern whether the item belongs to you.

Complete the contact form with specific information asking for the terminal and exact location where you lost the item, when it was lost, as well as your name and email address. Then proceed to the next page where you enter detailed information about your lost item. This information is used to determine if the item found belongs to you. If so, you will be sent a code that you will use to claim your newly found item.

Please note that you will be charged for an administrative fee to collect your found item. If you would like the item dispatched to you, postage and packing fees will be added to this fee.

If you are still in the airport, you can visit the London Heathrow Lost and Found physically in the Heathrow Express building below arrivals in Terminal 3 and near domestic arrivals in Terminal 5. Happy hunting!

Lost something at the airport? File a lost item report and we'll help connect you with the right airport or airline lost and found.