A Southern California woman who took an American Airlines flight to Hollywood Burbank Airport discovered that her lost luggage had somehow landed at a homeless encampment in Hollywood.
Aunny Grace's problems began at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport on May 29, when her flight was delayed and she had to sleep at the airport overnight, she told NBC Los Angeles. She ended up taking a different flight to Burbank and left without luggage.
Five days later, the airline sent the wrong suitcase to her home, Grace told the television station. She realized that she could track her luggage using an AirTag attached to her suitcase and she saw that she somehow ended up in a homeless camp.
“When I arrived, my bag had slowly made its way to Santa Monica and Western and that's when I found my things, not my suitcase, but particles of my things in a homeless man's shopping cart,” Grace told KTLA. “You get to a point where you look around the camp and think, 'I don't even want my stuff back.' I had toiletries bags thrown upside down. She had makeup bags. “All the makeup was gone.”
Grace had medicine, jewelry and bags she had bought in Bali looted from her luggage, according to NBC Los Angeles. She also noticed other stolen suitcases with American Airlines tags.
“That day I saw dozens of suitcases, new suitcases, brand-name suitcases scattered around Western and Sunset,” Grace told KTLA. “Rows and rows of suitcases, bicycles, baby strollers with airline labels everywhere.”
Grace's friend, who had accompanied her to find her lost luggage, agreed to pay the homeless man to retrieve her belongings, according to ABC7. Grace said she has seen bags left out in the open at the airport, making it easy for anyone to steal them.
“The bags that are late, they take them out of the carousel line and take them to the office,” he told the television station. “So you have the bags in the office and then the rest is outside.”
American Airlines said in a statement to ABC7: “We strive to ensure that our customers' checked baggage and other items arrive at their destinations on time and in their original condition. “We are investigating what happened here and in the meantime, a member of our team is in contact with the customer to apologize and resolve the issue.”
Grace could not immediately be reached for comment.
The rate of lost luggage on the nation's largest airlines has remained relatively stable in recent years, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Since 2020, the rate of lost or delayed bags has ranged from 4.14 bags per 1,000 bags loaded on a plane to 6.4 bags.
