AZ--Ever lose your luggage at PHX?

Video and images of these winners at the link:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid607237

Piles of stolen airport bags found in US couple's house
12:03PM Wednesday Nov 04, 2009
By Amanda Lee Myers

Keith Wilson King and Stacy Lynne Legg-King. Photo / AP
Couple stole luggage, had garage sales (1:23)

PHOENIX - Two people suspected of stealing up to 1000 pieces of luggage from
baggage claim carousels at Phoenix's airport have been arrested by police
who found heaps of the stolen bags strewn throughout their home.

There were so many suitcases that Phoenix police could only give a rough
estimate of their number as they pulled them out one by one and gathered
them in the yard of Keith Wilson King and Stacy Lynne Legg-King's suburban
residence.

"A piece of luggage here, a piece of luggage there, I would imagine gets
stolen out of airports all the time," Phoenix police Detective James Holmes
said. "This is a livelihood. There's a lot of luggage and there's a lot of
victims."

King, 61, and Legg-King, 38, were arrested on Monday local time, and each
was booked into jail on charges of theft of property and possession of
stolen property. Legg-King also was arrested on suspicion of tampering with
evidence. It was not immediately clear how the two are related.

Both denied requests to be interviewed, and it was unclear whether they had
attorneys.

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Holmes said investigators do not know how long the thefts have been
happening, or whether more people were involved. All the luggage tags that
would help identify the bags' owners were removed, he said.

Police first arrested King on a misdemeanour theft charge about three weeks
ago when an officer saw him park at Phoenix Sky Harbor International
Airport, take a piece of luggage from one of the baggage claim carousels and
get back into his car. He was released, and police began conducting
surveillance on him.

Holmes said police followed King to the airport on Monday and watched him
take a piece of luggage that wasn't his and return to his home with it. They
found the hundreds of other bags after searching the house Tuesday.

The home was in complete disarray, Holmes said, with the luggage, clothing
and other items including garbage scattered about.

"The amount of luggage being stored inside of the residence was almost
surreal," Officer Kendall Goo wrote in a court document.

Deborah Ostreicher, a spokeswoman for the Phoenix airport, said airlines
stopped checking passengers' baggage claim tickets there sometime in the
last 10 years as a cost-cutting measure.

She said airport officials and airlines are working together to assess
security at the airport and are talking about checking passengers' bag tags
again.

"We're evaluating a lot of different possibilities," she said.

Meanwhile, she said passengers should avoid putting critical medications or
expensive items in checked luggage, clearly mark their bags, and pick them
up as soon as possible after landing.

--
"It is a well-documented fact that guys will not ask for
directions. This is a biological thing. This is why it takes
several million sperm cells . . . to locate a female egg,
despite the fact that the egg is, relative to them, the
size of Wisconsin."-- Dave Barry

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chocolic (07.11.2009 07:05)