Baggage theft at JFK

[AlexanderB]

You know, before you lot carry on about how Argentina is the grand Mecca of theft, particularly in some semi-official context, consider:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/03...k-airport-baggage-scandal-200-thefts-per-day/

 

[willwright]

This is an old story. The problem airports are Boston, New York, and LAX. The mafia has for years infiltrated the unions who relentlessly rob passenger checked baggage and freight being shipped. I use to work in the business and talked to one baggage handler that saw it first hand. Not all the employees are in on it, but enough to cause the ongoing problem. Those who are honest know that trying to do anything about it would be bad for their health. There was a new manager for our airline that tried to do something about it at one airport and was beaten senseless the first week on the job. He never went back and was transfered to another airport the next week. See the movie Goodfellas where they talk about robbing the airport, it's true.

 

[AlexanderB]

That said, you pretty much have to be a capital imbecile to put $160,000 of jewelry and valuables into a checked suitcase.

 

[AlexanderB]

This is an old story. The problem airports are Boston, New York, and LAX. The mafia has for years infiltrated the unions who relentlessly rob passenger checked baggage and freight being shipped. I use to work in the business and talked to one baggage handler that saw it first hand. Not all the employees are in on it, but enough to cause the ongoing problem. Those who are honest know that trying to do anything about it would be bad for their health. There was a new manager for our airline that tried to do something about it at one airport and was beaten senseless the first week on the job. He never went back and was transfered to another airport the next week. See the movie Goodfellas where they talk about robbing the airport, it's true.

It's not news to me, and it sounds like it's most emphatically not news to you, but it might be news to the raving lunatics/zealots on here who think they left a model of moral rectitude and civil society behind, and moved to a country that invented large-scale, semi-institutionalised crime.

 

[HeyBA]

Ok, AlexandarB, I've made a few comparisons on this board in favor of contemporary NYC over BA in terms of less day-to-day corruption, so let's have an honest and rational conversation.

I think the difference between here and NYC is that in NYC it makes the news.

Particularly in the US, someone actually had the trust/stupidity to put, what did that lady say?, 160k US of jewelry in checked baggage? Damn, just buy a house with that (you know, in the hinterlands, just a downpayment in the big apple). That is ridiculous, and probably someone up to something else. Would you put that amount of anything into checked luggage?

Personally, if they raid my luggage, they will find the hottest shirts from the GAP and some dirty boxers. Please baggage handlers, leave those Adidas alone, they're twice as pricey in Argentina. I mean really, put anything of value in checked luggage and you're asking for it.

Yeah, I didn't really add anything beyond what was added above. I know. Perhaps you are or feel you are more the object of it in Argentina.

 

[AlexanderB]

My post wasn't aimed at you; everything I've read from you has struck me as reasonable and well-considered. However, I am not going to name names. That's not what this is about.

To your point about it making news: I think willwright nailed it. It made news arbitrarily, just as some misdeed occasionally makes news in Clarin or La Nación. However, that has no correlation whatsoever to how long it has been going on, which is a long time.

 

[HeyBA]

Yeah but if they steal something out of my luggage in an airport in NYC, I will actually

1) declare it before I board, if it is of value.

2) Call the NYPD as soon as it is gone.

3) Actually have legal recourse to the airline or baggage handling company at the airport where they can get sued and be brought liable for who they have hired.

4) And one more time, I can actually call the NYPD and have them actually not show up and try to beat the shit out of me or case my house.

An idiot puts valuables in stored luggage. But you've got to be a high grade idiot to not call the police in present day New York.

If you are transporting 160,000 USD in jewelry in stored luggage, you've got another agenda.

Just sayin.

But still.

I enjoy BA, in an innocent way, more than NYC.

 

[Amargo]

Yeah but if they steal something out of my luggage in an airport in NYC, I will actually

1) declare it before I board, if it is of value.

2) Call the NYPD as soon as it is gone.

3) Actually have legal recourse to the airline or baggage handling company at the airport where they can get sued and be brought liable for who they have hired.

4) And one more time, I can actually call the NYPD and have them actually not show up and try to beat the shit out of me or case my house.

An idiot puts valuables in stored luggage. But you've got to be a high grade idiot to not call the police in present day New York.

If you are transporting 160,000 USD in jewelry in stored luggage, you've got another agenda.

Just sayin.

But still.

I enjoy BA, in an innocent way, more than NYC.

In this case I presume the results would be the same in BA and NYC: money is gone, nothing police can do for you. Since in BA one presumably would choose not to call the police, the time wasting factor could be more favourable.
Not matter where, valuables don't belong in check-in baggage.

 

[willwright]

I wrote earlier that theft is a problem at some U.S. airports. In the U.S. organized crime has always been a problem that never has quite gone away. In earlier days the mafia was very powerful, today not as much, but other groups have risen since. The difference between Argentina and the U.S. is this. The government in the U.S. continues an ongoing fight against organized crime and drug smuggling, certainly not a 100% effective but a considerable and honest effort none the less. In Argentina organized crime has been legitimized and became the government which is run like a mafia family with those favored by the family reaping enormous financial and other benefits. In the U.S. Jimmy Hoffa was sent to prison, in Argentina Moyano (Argentina's Jimmy Hoffa) was practically part of the government although they have fallen out somewhat since a year or so ago.

 

[HeyBA]

Yeah, Alexander, and hope I didn't sound stand-offish with the above. It's said on this forum from time to time, that the foreigners probably benefit just as much from the loose legal environment in Argentina as they are harmed by it. The lax immigration policies, availability of "tourist apartments", are to our benefit.

The big difference between here and the US, and this is mentioned a lot on here too, is in the US you've got this almost open, very well-known corruption at the top in a lot of different sectors, where in Argentina, you're running into these small-time networks of hustlers and things on a frequent basis, who may or may not be connected to something larger. One loses this sense of "you're not doing that to me!" in Argentina.

Today's NYC has almost gotten too tame. I didn't live there in the "bad old days" or in "real New York", however you want to phrase it. The attitudes displayed there at present would result in a brawl in the rest of the US, but the police presence there is so heavy that people just insult each other to the limit allowed by law. And it's not the "native" New Yorkers who do it, but the pretentious jerks that have moved there. That city is just not real anymore.

I prefer life here because it is more real. I'd seriously rather face the threat of crime from time to time than deal with snearing hipsters in skinny jeans and bankster boys that never had to grow up refusing basic decency to others.