Luggage

Worried about your bag getting stolen in baggage claim? Nearly 60 percent of 1,830 people who responded to an online TripAdvisor poll said they always or often were concerned about the security of their luggage in the baggage-claim area. Only 11 percent said they were never concerned. Here are steps you can take to protect your possessions, gleaned from research and chats with security experts: 1. Don't check bags. Pack lightly and use a carry-on. 2. Keep valuables with you. On domestic flights, the law usually caps compensation for lost or damaged bags at $3,300 per passenger, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

A woman from Columbus, Ohio, was charged Monday after a stun gun was found in her carry-on luggage at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. A Transportation Security Administration officer detected the stun gun, which was the size and shape of a smartphone, and contacted a Maryland Transportation Authority Police officer, who confiscated the weapon. The woman was issued a citation and allowed to board her flight, the TSA said. Candy.thomson@baltsun.com Text TERPS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Terps sports text alerts

What do these items have in common: Chickens, luggage, crabs, plant barrels, corn, hand wipes, F-14 wiring and surf-and-sand?All are job-creating industries on Maryland's Eastern Shore. But the trend now is toward manufacturing jobs, a growth industry that could transform an economy highly dependent on seasonal activities.Who would have suspected 10 years ago that a French luggage manufacturer would locate its only American plant in Denton?Or that 700 workers in Salisbury would be operating a huge catalog-ordering telephone service for banks, department stores and magazines?

Maryland Transportation Authority Police arrested a Florida man Sunday morning after security agents found a loaded handgun in his carry-on luggage at BWI Marshall Airport. Michael Menlo Smith, 58, was found with a 9 mm Glock 17, loaded with 10 rounds of ammunition, and two magazines with another 10 rounds each, according to police and the Transportation Security Administration. Police confiscated the firearm and ammunition and arrested the man. There was no impact on airport operations, according to TSA. Smith told police he forgot the firearm was in his luggage, spokesman Sgt. Kirk Perez said.

I recently traveled between Charlotte, N.C., and Washington, D.C., on Delta with a single piece of luggage. At curbside check-in in Charlotte, the check-in guy barked, "You have to remove 8 pounds from this bag right now or go inside and pay $50." Because of a bad back, I said I would pay the $50 rather than hassle with the bag. In flight, I discovered I had been charged $80. I was outraged and want my money back. How can this type of thing be avoided? Either by packing lighter or getting the price of fuel under control.

Why do the airlines allow all the passengers on a given flight to carry on luggage, winter coats (if it's that time of the year) and all manner of other stuff, regardless of the overhead space available to hold those items? I've been traveling a lot lately. If you fly at all, you know that many passengers with smaller suitcases, usually "rollaboards" (suitcases with wheels to make them easier to carry), take their suitcases on board to be stored in overhead compartments. They do this to avoid having to wait at baggage claim - for their luggage to return from Tahiti, where it was mistakenly sent - and to save the checked baggage frees many airlines charge.

Technology is bringing that ol' kit bag into the 20th century . . . and beyond.Some baggage even calls out for you. California-based ACTS has a bag with an electronic beeping device that alerts you to its location -- assuming you know your beep from the cry of someone else's luggage. (The Sentry 2000 carry-on retails for about $495.)The same company offers luggage with card locks instead of key or combination locks. You slip your identity card (about the size of a credit card) through a slot to unlock your bags.

Chaja is struggling with plenty of excess baggage - and that doesn't even include the missing suitcases that her father buried at the height of World War II, suitcases that contain her family's fortune. Director Jeroen Krabbe's Left Luggage is about Chaja's struggles to remain true to a faith that seems to have little to do with her life as a philosophy student in the early 1970s, the era of free love and free thinking. The film is a thoughtful, but by no means somber, look at an issue that might strike a particular chord with Jews.

Having recently returned from a trek to the beach, I have a warning for anyone thinking about strapping luggage to the top of his car. Remember that the minute you place a suitcase on your car roof, rain clouds begin to form.You may make it over to the ocean or to another vacation destination without getting wet. But eventually, a storm will strike you. The wind will howl. The heavens will open. Your suitcases will be soaked.While I'm in the advice-giving mode, here is some for anyone considering a weekend drive to the Atlantic Ocean beaches: Leave right now!

It was my first two-way airline baggage mishap.On a recent trip, Northwest Airlines misplaced my luggage on the flight out and on the return flight as well.At departure, the checked bags were improperly tagged by the skycap. It took a day to find them in San Francisco, rather than in my destination city of Seattle. On the way back, the bags didn't make the connection between Northwest flights in Detroit, although I did. A day later, the bags were delivered to my home.My inconvenience, of course, is small potatoes compared to the experience of Felice Lippert, whose bag containing more than $400,000 worth of jewelry was lost at a Palm Beach International Airport security checkpoint in 1986.

I am at southside mall just before the big day in December of 2001, my rust-spotted RAV-4 parked in front of Goodwill, when my favorite holiday music starts up over the loudspeaker. "Greensleeves" always brings to mind the first time I heard it. Bagpipes and drums had awakened me in my hotel on my very first trip to London. When I looked out the window, below me marched a small parade of men wearing kilts, and I later learned the tune they played was a somber "Greensleeves. " Today it reminds me that, besides new Christmas tree lights, I could use luggage for my upcoming sixth trip to London, this time with the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.

A Carroll County man was arrested Tuesday morning at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport after a Transportation Security Administration agent detected a 45-caliber handgun in his luggage at a checkpoint. TSA spokesman J. Kawika Riley said the man was trying to pass through the screening area at Pier C when an X-ray machine operator noticed what appeared to be a weapon in the passenger's carry-on luggage. A Maryland Transportation Authority police officer was summoned to the scene to conduct a search and found the handgun, Riley said.

Why do the airlines allow all the passengers on a given flight to carry on luggage, winter coats (if it's that time of the year) and all manner of other stuff, regardless of the overhead space available to hold those items? I've been traveling a lot lately. If you fly at all, you know that many passengers with smaller suitcases, usually "rollaboards" (suitcases with wheels to make them easier to carry), take their suitcases on board to be stored in overhead compartments. They do this to avoid having to wait at baggage claim - for their luggage to return from Tahiti, where it was mistakenly sent - and to save the checked baggage frees many airlines charge.

A Baltimore man of Egyptian origin was being held Thursday at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center after having been arrested at BWI Marshall Airport last week, when police said they stopped a man with 13 knives in his possession, authorities said. Amr Gamal Shedid, 24, of the 3200 block of N. Charles St., was in custody on $10,000 bail after Transportation Security Administration agents said they detected 13 knives in a passenger's carry-on luggage at the Pier D checkpoint on July 7, authorities said.

A Transportation Security Administration officer discovered 13 knives in the carry-on luggage of a passenger attempting to board a flight at BWI Marshall Airport last week, leading to the man's arrest. TSA spokesman Kawika Riley said the passenger attempted to pass through a checkpoint at BWI's Pier D the afternoon of July 7 when an officer operating an X-ray machine noticed something suspicious. Riley said a luggage search found 13 knives of differing shapes and sizes. They included "a lot" of spring-operated knives and a butterfly knife, the spokesman said.

AAA, Goodwill offer "Luggage Trade-In/Trade-Up" program What's the deal? Donate your gently used luggage to Goodwill Industries retail stores and receive a discount voucher good for the purchase of new luggage from local AAA Mid-Atlantic stores. What are the savings? For every piece of gently used luggage dropped off at one of Goodwill's donation centers by April 16, donors will receive a discount voucher good for 40 percent off a piece of Antler Luggage or $25 off a luggage purchase of $50 or more.

Worried about your bag getting stolen in baggage claim? Nearly 60 percent of 1,830 people who responded to an online TripAdvisor poll said they always or often were concerned about the security of their luggage in the baggage-claim area. Only 11 percent said they were never concerned. Here are steps you can take to protect your possessions, gleaned from research and chats with security experts: 1. Don't check bags. : Pack lightly and use a carry-on. 2. Keep valuables with you. : On domestic flights, the law usually caps compensation for lost or damaged bags at $3,300 per passenger, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

WASHINGTON -- The state of Maryland failed yesterday in its plea to the Supreme Court to give police broad authority to look for evidence of crime in luggage that suspects leave with their friends.Without explanation, the justices turned aside a state appeal seeking to reinstate the conviction of a Florida man for possessing cocaine with intent to distribute it.The Maryland Court of Appeals last April struck down the conviction of Lenard B. Owens of Fort Pierce, Fla., because police -- acting on a tip -- had gone to an apartment in Hagerstown and had taken and opened a closed bag that Mr. Owens had left there overnight with a friend.

Edwin F. Hale Sr. was criminally charged with interfering with security procedures and violating security regulations after the chairman and CEO of First Mariner Bancorp was found with a loaded handgun in carry-on luggage at BWI Marshall Airport, police said Saturday. Maryland Transportation Authority Police Chief Marcus L. Brown said his officers did not arrest or handcuff Hale but issued him a criminal summons ordering him to Anne Arundel County District Court at a later date. Transportation Security Administration officials discovered the gun Friday at an airport security checkpoint.

A French company, Delsey Luggage, plans to move its U.S. headquarters next year from Elkridge to Hanover. Delsey, a maker of luxury luggage, has leased 186,053 square feet of office and warehouse distribution space at the Preston Gateway Corporate Park and plans to move there in early 2011. Delsey will have approximately 100 employees at the Hanover site. Text BUSINESS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Business text alerts