When traveling with checked luggage there is always the chance that the airline will lose your luggage. In fact, according to the SITA Baggage Report 2016, a historic low of 6.5 bags per 1,000 passengers were lost in 2015.  I assumed I was one of the unlucky ones when we landed in Montreal, Quebec on a family trip. Waiting at the luggage carousel in the Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, everyone in the family found their bags easily until it was just me left without a bag. After no new bags started coming out I went over to the help desk to try to figure out what happened to my bag; no one was there.

After 20 minutes of not so patiently waiting, an airline worker came back to his desk to help me. He had been helping a little, old lady in a wheel chair get her bag and into a cab to her hotel. That’s a fairly good excuse for being gone I suppose. I explained the problem and handed the guy my luggage tracking receipt. After a few clicks on the computer the attendant informed me that my bags had in fact made it to Montreal just as it was supposed to.

We checked the carousel again and noticed a large red bag similar to mine. Close enough that they could have been confused. The bag had a tag with a name and number, which we called to no avail. After a little while the attendant’s face started to turn red — he had a realization. Remember that little old lady he helped? Well she had a large red bag and that name had sounded familiar… A little old lady inadvertently stole my bag!

We made our way to our hotel as the airline continued to try to get ahold of the accidental burglar. We were leaving for a cruise the next afternoon and the airline was going to bring it to the dock if they got it back. After our walking tour of Montreal that next morning, we headed to the cruise terminal. I inquired about my bag as we checked in and the attendants didn’t know anything about it! Downtrodden we winded through the many decks of the ship to our cabin. Low and behold my bag was there waiting for me!