Baggage Bandits Busted

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Times are tough all over, and nowhere is that more true than out here in the sand lands of Arizona where unemployment and home foreclosures are rising faster than the price of medical insurance.

But, as they say, when times are tough, the tough get going. That axiom was proved true today with the arrest of a couple of very industrious Arizonans, Keith Wilson King and his lovely wife, Stacey Lynne Legg-King. The Kings were nabbed at their home in the Phoenix suburb of Waddell along with over 1,000 pieces of stolen luggage.

The Kings had been fighting the recession by hitching up their horse trailer to the old pick-up truck and driving to Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport. There they roamed through the luggage carousels and picked up nondescript pieces of black luggage that sported no special markings or colorful ribbons. By the time the unlucky travelers realized that their bags were missing, the Kings had stashed their loot in the horse trailer and were heading back into the airport for more.

That's a clever little criminal enterprise, and it is probably happening at other airports as well. Victims are robbed twice - once by paying $15, or $20, or more per checked bag - and once by the bag snatcher! They literally get it coming and going!

I bought new luggage in Nogales a couple of years ago. Those suitcases are green with a bold green and yellow decorative border - unlike any others that I have ever seen. The purpose in acquiring this loud luggage was to have something easy to identify on the baggage carousels. Now it has the added benefit of being harder to steal! Sometimes I am so smart it is scary!