It’s the kind of stuff flight nightmares are made of.
A California woman says she was left heartbroken after her carry-on backpack that contained nearly $40,000 worth of heirloom jewelry disappeared when she was on a Southwest Airlines flight to the Bay Area in mid-August.
Of course, if you have a carry-on and a personal-sized bag with you, the carry-on typically goes in the overhead and the smaller bag goes under the seat in front of you. And if you’re in the bulkhead seat, everything has to go in the overhead.
That’s what Stephanie Arrues wanted to do when she was traveling to attend her niece’s wedding in Hawaii. “It was a special family event and I wanted my heirloom jewelry with me,” she said.
Overhead Space Problem
She had the bulkhead seat and, because she was recovering from an arm injury, asked the flight attendant to help her put her backpack in the overhead directly above her.
But there already wasn’t any room for her bags in any of the overheads around her. So the flight attendant said they’d have to go wherever there was an empty spot.
“It’s a valuable bag. I’d rather not be separated,” Arrues said she told the flight attendant, who responded that “it will be fine” and pointed to overhead bins about seven rows away.
So Arrues put her backpack where she was told. But she was still uncomfortable with leaving the bag so far away. She said she once again voiced her reservations, yelling out her concerns to the flight attendant at the front of the plane, but to no avail.
Bag Goes Missing
When the flight landed in Oakland and she went back to the open bin, her worst fears were realized – her bag was gone.
Arrues said, “I didn’t see my bag, and something inside me fell in my stomach.”
She said she ran off the plane, scanning all the other deplaning passengers, but her bag was nowhere to be found.
An airline employee searched the plane and found a similar-looking backpack filled with men’s toiletries and some car keys. But Arrues’ bag, filled with about 10 pieces of family heirloom jewelry worth an estimated $40,000, was nowhere to be found.
“I was bawling. I felt violated. Someone had taken a piece of me,” Arrues said. “I know I’m never gonna see my jewelry again.”
Arrues said the missing items included a diamond necklace from her deceased grandmother and a diamond pendant from her sister, who had also passed away. One piece featured “18 to 20 diamonds around a heart,” Arrues added.
Arrues filed a police report with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and submitted two complaints to Southwest Airlines. The airline responded with an email stating the lost item couldn’t be located.
Her Warning for Other Travelers
Arrues took to social media to warn others not to allow valuables to stray far from their sight on a plane.
“Don’t separate. Put it at your feet, directly above your head. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” she said.
Arrues said she also wishes she had put a baggage tag on her backpack and placed an AirTag inside it, so she could track her bag.
A Southwest Airlines spokesperson issued the following statement: “The customer filed a lost item report the following day, but the bag did not turn up. Southwest does not track personal carry-on items, so any reported theft would most appropriately be investigated by police.”
H/T: People
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