The secret afterlife of lost German luggage | Hacker News Reader

The secret afterlife of lost German luggage

nytimes.com

125 pointsbookofjoe63 comments

There’s a store like this in Alabama also profiled many times appropriately called ”Unclaimed Baggage” and acts as a clearing house for most of the US lost bags.

Since 9/11 and newer TSA regulations have gone into effect, as well as just how much better we’ve gotten at tracking bags electronically, the quality and churn at the store has kind of plummeted.

One thinks one may pick up some Ming Dynasty vase or fossilized velociraptor eggs lost in transit (and to be sure there were good deals back in the day) but the reality now is more like a large thrift store. We all grumble about air travel but “lost bags” feels like something that’s gotten markedly less common over the past 20 years.

But you can get great deals on TSA confiscated pocket knives and corkscrews.

https://www.govdeals.com/index.cfm?fa=Main.Item&itemid=2341&...

Similarly, you can get great deals on stolen items on craigslist.

This simply is stealing. Thanks for the link, I'm now disgusted.

What would you like to see happen instead?

Let people break the rule and take the items in their carry-on? (in which case why have the rule in the first place?)

Pay people when they take the items? That is going to be an administrative faf all because people can't read and follow rules correctly - do you want to pay for that admin in your ticket prices?

Allow people to pay for the items to be stored until their return? They'll be accused of profiteering there too because again the admin work will need to be paid for, and there is a logistical problem when people don't return to the same airport.

Just send the confiscated items to landfill?

You might argue that a lot of the security theatre around air travel places a hindrance on the passengers and that you consider it unfair, but the rules about carrying sharp objects are very clearly documented (at least they have been when I fly around Europe, are the US processes less organised?) and well known even if you don't bother to read the documentation, so having such items taken off you if you do bring them in pockets or other carry-on luggage should be no surprise.

Yes, simply allowing the pickup of your own confiscated items would suffice.

My wife has hidden a pocket knife under a floor standing ATM in the departure area at O'Hare pre-security and retrieved it when she got back, it wasn't discovered. Not recommended but there is a way to do this, "unofficially", success not guaranteed. Don't leave bomb-shaped packages.

>What would you like to see happen instead?

No problem about the sale/auction, but where does the money go?

I would prefer to know that the money coming from the bulk sale is going to a known non-profit, as an example.

Arguably the US government is the "best-known" non-profit :)

>What would you like to see happen instead?

A post office branch located just outside security that is stocked with 100x the normal number of the cheap flat rate bubble wrap envelope so that people not wanting to lose their items can mail things they shouldn't fly with home or to their destination and then get back in line.

To go even further (i.e. something that isn't zero net cost), a great many of the things that you can't carry on can be checked. It wouldn't be hard or particularly costly (though obviously it would still cost something) to reserve half yard of space for those kinds of belongings and find some simple way to make sure they get on the plane and get to their owner.

Or you, the passenger, could put the item in your checked baggage before hitting any processing (assuming you have any checked baggage of course, it is common not to for short trips), or post it back to yourself before hitting security.

Ignoring any cost implications (in both the above circumstances the passenger could be charged at the time), security getting involved in this will just add to the delay experienced by passengers further back in the queue.

> Ignoring any cost implications [...] the delay

This argument has no value in itself or it would apply equally to everyone. The only thing that gives it power is "because the Government said so" since the power is entirely on the Government's side. Any implication (cost, time, privacy) introduced by the authorities to the passenger is never considered.

Any delay will certainly be considered by the passenger. By _this_ passenger at any rate!

I think it was clear that the consideration for losses you incur should come from the authority. Otherwise yours is quite useless given the above mentioned power balance. It's purely philosophical without any support from the same authorities who sell your seized property for cash because they only consider their side.

Exactly. I’ve flown maybe a total of 25-30 flights and don’t fly too often, still I have never once had to have something confiscated because I didn’t attempt to take the stuff on trip in the first place. Worst Ive done is throw out a water/drink that I couldn’t take through security. You people that have to remove things from your bags hold everybody up and cost everyone more money. Read the rules. Pack accordingly.

I've also flown plenty of times and have never had something stolen. But every time I've still suffered the stress of having to scrutinize my backpack to make sure I had removed everything objectionable. This is especially insidious with basic items that live in my bag for general travel (eg a Leatherman), and can end up hiding in a pocket or some folds of fabric.

The problem isn't having to "read" the rules, but rather the draconian punishment for making honest mistakes, justified by dimwitted refrains of "read the rules". At the very least, items that can be in checked baggage should be able to be checked on the spot at no additional charge (eg pocket knives), and you should be able to ground-ship anything else at standard rates without having to go to the back of the line.

I don't know if anything comprehensive could be done for recalled lithium batteries, camp stove fuel cylinders, etc. But reasonably handling the utterly inert items that the TSA has decided to terror-ize would go along way to alleviating the needless imposition that is TSA, as illustrated by the photos above.

> justified by dimwitted refrains of "read the rules"

Ah, the humble ad hominem. To which the only real answer is "I know you are, but what am I?".

Don't be the dimwit who accidentally takes an expensive set of sharp things in carry-on. How much stress is it _really_ to empty the bag and repack to make sure everything is where it should be?

Don't be the entitled prick who throws insults because the world won't change the rules that they find inconvenient.

Good point btw. I'd much rather have service at airport that ships my suitcase via traditional methods but saves me $10-15 and hassle carrying suitcase all around across the world. I can live off my carry-on for a week or two.

I guess that would only serve people who move across infrequently. Most travellers are only visiting places for couple of weeks or so.

Saying "it can be checked" is a red herring now that more and more fares don't include checked bag privileges.

If I'm going to have to spend $50 to check a bottle of perfume, I'd rather spend $15 to Priority Mail it back to myself.

> Allow people to pay for the items to be stored until their return?

I've had knives confiscated that I was allowed to fill out a form and pay ~$20 to mail back to myself. Doesn't work if you're already late for your flight, but I've done it at least twice.

The reason that pocket knives were banned is that the 9/11 hijackers used box-cutters to forcibly open the flimsy cockpit doors. Nowadays, the cockpit doors of all US airplanes have been reinforced and are no longer vulnerable to this attack, so the need for banning pocket knives so longer exists. A simple solution would be to scrap the outdated ban on pocket knives.

In all my international flights this year (Europe and South America) the food was served with metallic cutlery.

I would say the rule is obsolete in the civilized world.

my memory is that the box cutters were used as weapons to seize the plane, not to open doors. this is the first time i’ve ever even heard that and i suspect it isn’t true.

Provide a convenient way to mail it with USPS at USPS rates (for items that can be safely mailed, so probably not lighters). Sell postage, and suitable envelopes for (edit:) normal USPS post office prices.

The only airports which offered something similar to this set up a dedicated service profiteering of the captive audience with ridiculously inflated rates.

I feel like there's a huge business opportunity for a pack-and-ship franchise on the non-secure side of airports.

Have a big display of bags/envelopes conceptually like the Priority Mail flat-rate envelopes/boxes. If you realize you brought a local sauce, or a souvenir pocket knife, and can't check it, you can just toss it in one of those bags, seal it, write your address on, pay a modestly extortionate price, and it shows up at home a few days after you get back. By making it flat rate, they streamline purchasing flow and avoid hassle of people trying to optimize what they send back while on the checkout queue.

I could also imagine it directly competing with the airlines' excess-bag charges-- if you're staring down the barrel of a $150 "third checked bag" penalty because you got something special abroad, being able to slap a FedEx sticker on your suitcase full of dirty clothes and pay $75 is a compelling value.

You can make it soooo smooth. Scan your boarding pass, get an envelope with some Id, put item in, drop into box. Update address later (or gets sent automatically to address provided by airline). Whole experience takes less than 30 seconds.

Pay $2 for shipping to their home.

Anecdotal, but I used to fly regularly with British Airways, and between 2000-2010 or so, they would frequently lose my bags - maybe 25% of the time, no exaggeration. As something of a blessing, it was always on the return journey.

But since 2010, I don't think I've had a single lost bag!

Did you change how you packed while it was an issue?

A large chunk of this will just by improved procedures and tech† generally, driven by the desire for efficiency improvements, so it would have happened anyway, but I assume change was accelerated due to increased accountability requirements. The airlines, airports and other service companies involved are under pressure to know exactly what bags are where at any given time. A suspect package can gnarl up the system enough, but no one wants it to be on their watch that there is a call to find a suspect passengers bags and that is impossible due to a mistake. I'm surprised you noticed a change since 2010, given the sudden bump in security requirements from late 2001 I'd have expected a noticeable change closer to that time.

[†] less things falling off conveyors, getting their labels ripped off on the way through, better recording and identifying of bags via QR codes so if something does go the wrong way it can be easily identified and re-re-routed, etc.

I still lose bags a very high percentage of the times that I check them (maybe 20%) so I never check them.

It's far from solved.

I'm curious what routes you are flying and what airlines?

Lose or delayed?

I find delayed is probably 10% or more, especially with connecting flights and when weather causes changes. Though I rarely check luggage at all.

But I have never permanently lost a bag.

Deutsche Bahn, while having undergone preparations for going public like Deutsche Post (DHL), Postbank and Deutsche Telekom, is still 100% state-owned. The current political sentiment in Germany makes an IPO very unlikely to happen in the forseeable future, so those operations might just continue. Just recently a few laws passed, further integrating state and DB (soldiers travelling for free, state money as part of climate change prevention, VAT decrease, etc).

Edit: Writing this on a DB train and just got a christmas present. :)

That actually sounds like quite a fun job, figuring out ways to trace the owner of luggage based on its contents, a bit like playing low stakes detective. I wonder if they learned a specific trade to work there?

Fun fact: In the early 90s, there used to be a whole German TV show around the concept of auctioning lost luggage from airports and exploring their contents, Koffer Hoffer [0].

[0] https://youtu.be/-qE--luAfAU

U.S. Unclaimed Baggage Center website: https://www.unclaimedbaggage.com/

>A Place Where Lost Luggage Gets Another Shot (2014)

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/business/a-place-where-lo...

>This Is a Story About Loss: On losing things, losing people, and finding God at Unclaimed Baggage Center (2015)

https://www.vox.com/2015/10/20/9487775/unclaimed-baggage-cen...

>The Secret Treasures of Lost Luggage Land (2016)

https://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2016-05-23/the-secret-tre...

>This store in Alabama is selling your lost luggage (2019)

https://www.travelpulse.com/news/airlines/watch-this-store-i...

There's a Youtube channel where they had a competition to see who could make the best outfit from lost British luggage. It was the same sort of auction so maybe this is a pattern in other countries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ortv_e-G0bk

There are a number of auctions in the United States that auction off not only lost airline luggage but also actual airline surplus materials.

Some are run by liquidation companies and some are run by the airlines themselves.

The Instagram story-esque design is an interesting take. I'm viewing this on a desktop but I'm not sure how I feel about it. Usually I prefer scrolling but I suppose it works well with the high-res photos.

NYT like other media companies are expermimenting with different formats. Some are more interactive than others. I personally am not too crazy about this one because at least on my phone it appears as if poorly formatted and when swiping a slide back activates to the browser back command.

When at work I noticed that I almost always avoid these types of format especially when it take over the whole screen and have conspicuous animations.

BBC does this a lot.

I feel the opposite. Rather than read a story I read a bunch of disconnected snippets, like tweets. The separation was magnified by the need to click for each snippet. It's hard to remember what I read.

I kinda liked it. Clean interface, gorgeous photo/gif first design.

Once I figured out that it was a slideshow and not a broken page I liked the format. They should have a highly visible arrow to the right though, since scrolling and pressing the down key do nothing.

In the 90s in Germany there was a TV-show with luggage auction. The contestants had to bid, open them, then dress up. Audience voted for the best cat walk.

The article fails to answer some obvious, albeit perhaps tediously technical questions: How much do they charge people to get their property back? Do they bother in cases in which it's unlikely the owner will be willing to pay that amount? In what proportion of cases do they find the owner, but the owner is unwilling to pay? Can the owner still claim the auction proceeds if they refused to pay to get the item back? (In which case, refusing to answer the question might be the optimal response!) How do they handle cash? (It would be eccentric to send by post or auction bank notes, even if they're foreign bank notes.)

Between 5 and 50 € depending on whether you'll pick it up yourself or let them send it to you.

Also things that are apparently worth less than 15 € aren't shipped to the central lost&found.

Source only in german: https://www.bahn.de/p/view/service/fundservice.shtml

Can we please, for the love of god, forbid posting non-public links to HN??

What’s the logic of linking to a page we cannot read?

See "Are paywalls ok?" on https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html You might disagree, but comments on paywall don't add anything to the discussion of the story.

How should I advocate for a change of policy then? I’ve been complaining about this for a long time, it seriously detracts from the experience of using this as a news source.

I would appreciate an article about "The secret afterlife of Belgium Mail"

The Belgium postal system ranks below Moldavia. It is a third world country and the postal system is dysfunctional.

Now wonder Boris Johnson is leaving after he lived some years in Bruessels.

took me a second to figure out that i needed to use the arrow keys. also i read saugage at first... but very interesting story :)

As a German: why does the clickbait title say this is secret?

Is this different from how other countries handle lost+found?

Don't focus on the literal meaning of the word 'secret' too much. Secret can be used colloquially to mean 'unseen' or less commonly 'that which is not widely known but not technically secret'.

It's a dramatic way of saying such a thing, but that's to be expected in a newspaper headline.

“Secret life of x” is a cliché in book titles/headlines in colloquial/idiomatic English

Someone needs to write a sequel to The Third Policeman but with bikes instead of luggage

I spend 3 minutes to find out this has nothing to do with German language.

mirror?

https://outline.com/EqgDw6

thanks :)

Is the auctioneer a distant cousin of Bruce?

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