Someone took my bag at airport security or on a train
When someone accidentally or intentionally takes your bag at a security checkpoint or train station, you are left stranded without identification, cash, or electronics. Even when tracking devices like AirTags show where the luggage is traveling, victims find it nearly impossible to get meaningful help from airlines, stations, or security managers to recover their belongings.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from September 2026.
- It is not one crowd: 4 people on Reddit and 1 on Stack Exchange ran into the same thing.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Tracking the luggage using location-sharing apps like Apple Find MyDid this help you?
- 2Filing police reports with local authoritiesDid this help you?
- 3Leveraging personal networks, WhatsApp groups, and contacts to find local assistanceDid this help you?
- 4Filing insurance claims and assuming the items are lostDid this help you?
- 5Using AirTags to track luggage locationDid this help you?
- 6Using a cable lock looped around multiple handles and secured to the rackDid this help you?
- 7Putting trackers in all bagsDid this help you?
- 8Considering booking a same-day or next-day return flight to go back and searchDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“We were on a OuiGo train from Paris to Strasbourg and had our large bags stowed by the doors, my backpack on the floor at my feet, spouse’s backpack directly overhead.”source ↗
“Stopped at a station and two guys in their 20s got on, one sat behind, one in front, enough of a distraction that apparently the backpack was taken without us noticing.”source ↗
“It has an AirTag and the backpack is moving about northern France…but we have no way of hunting it down at this point.”source ↗
“No cash and no passports, but an external hard drive that had 1000s of travel photos and trip journals on it is now gone.”source ↗
“Me and my wife have misplaced a couple smaller things at the airport and have never gotten anything back. All my bags have trackers now”source ↗
“I lost a journal with a lot of personal and embarrassing writings. I kept being directed to lost and found, but the lost and found at my airport doesn’t functionally exist. They have hours and a phone number but only the robot answered. No one actually ever was in the office.”source ↗
“My first thing i checked for roundtrip same day or for tomorrow, is international flight but a bit less than 2 hours and affordable, wife suggested not to.”source ↗
“Now, i did contact the lost and found Department after several attempts 5 to 7 hours after i boarded. Best answer i got - we didn't get it. I specify where and when, they said they won't go to check.”source ↗
“In the security check area, someone took my cabin luggage and left theirs behind.”source ↗
“Using my Find My app I can see the cabin bag is somewhere in Kenya.”source ↗
“That cabin bag is my life. It has a folder containing all my important documents and my laptop, on which some important files are not backed up.”source ↗
“I'm unsure what my next steps should be. I've raised a complaint with Heathrow airport but it seems the same security managers will handle it and I don't have much hope.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 4Can you check bags to an intermediate stop on a layover?
- 34How to find a missing pet that wandered off
- 3How to get laptops back from remote employees