Time to get one of these...

http://luggagecircle.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/gps-tracking-for-luggage/

Many airports have security that checks your tags with your receipts before you can leave the luggage claim area.
Costco does a similar thing with receipts when you leave the store.
Seems like a good solution and provides employment too.

Many airports have security that checks your tags with your receipts before you can leave the luggage claim area.

I vaguely remember this being done in Portland many years ago; but it has been years since I have seen tag checks anywhere at all.

We need to get that Vancouver light rail done ASAP so that we don't have our luggage nabbers from the north leaving a heavy carbon footprint.

MAX ....doesn't go up there..." (Vancouver, WA)

YET.

I'm curious how the thieves do this? Do they wait until everyone has picked up there bags from a specific flight and then just snag the bags that people forgot? Or do they rush in and grab bags before passengers can get from their gate down to baggage claim?

I used to fly a lot, and I think I can count on one hand the number of times my bag beat me to baggage claim. I almost always had to wait for my bags.

Portland Native: Please tell us which airports they actually check bagage against receipts. I've flown into Portland, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Ft. Lauderdale airports in the past year and never saw a soul checking anything at the baggage carousels.

Yeah, I'm curious too, since every flight at PDX when I check a bag I'm waiting for about five minutes to ten minutes at the baggage terminal before bags come out--and most of the flight is waiting around as well ready to grab their bag as soon as they see it.

I'm assuming they're hanging out and grabbing the bags left over on the side after everyone else is gone.

How many bags were reported "lost" to the airlines that were actually nabbed before a passenger got to the carosel ?
I've gone to the rental car counter before grabbing my bag on some trips but I was also in a group and one of the others in my party would snag and guard my bag.
I recall PDX having a bag checker in the past. Sometime in the 1990's they disapeared.

Gotta tear through my underwear in front of everyone to root out my ultra dangerous nail clippers, but anyone can just walk off with my bag. Now that's security!

Actually I have experienced this in Buenos Aries, Lima, and Cusco, last year, and in Miami, and Ft. Lauderdale, 2 years ago.
It has been a while...5 years ago, at Heathrow and Paris.
At PDX...never!

Foreign countries and arriving from overseas to the US wouldn't really count since you get your bags before you clear customs and it would be difficult for someone off the street to get into the baggage claim areas. As for domestic travel, I’ve flown into every major airport in the US and a lot of not so major ones in the past 5 years and not once have I ever been asked to produce a baggage claim ticket.

I have had a few people grab my suitcase off the belt and claim it was theirs sometimes even after I show them my name on the luggage tag!

And a strange TSA theft---we were moving back to Japan recently, and a friend had asked me to get a few cans of Skoal for him. When we got to Tokyo and unpacked everything, the tins (in the only bag that was opened and searched by TSA in Portland) were missing. Really? Really! I know those folks not paid that well, but come on!

Ah, heck. They're prob'ly just neighborly little meth folks who need some money.

PDX GATE, what next.

Jason, I find your comment very interesting,regarding the TSA.
Last month I left Philadelphia to Portland on Delta and when I arrived at the downtown Hilton, I noticed on the baggage strap a "little orange circle" that stated...Checked by TSA, I also wondered if they looked inside (Nothing Missing) however I never noticed this before.
On my return flight to Philadelphia via Seattle on Alaska Airlines...My bag was lost!...I just got off the phone with Alaska and they stated all contents of my bag would be entered in a "World Data Base" ....I asked the agent how long for a settlement?
She stated 3-4 weeks. Please note: If you ever lose a bag, the airline wants receipts for any item over $100. This is a nightmare as some of my items were well north of $100 and yes I checked a camera and a spare watch (NOT COVERED) Oh the joys of flying. I wonder WHERE my bag was lost? PDX-SEA-Phl.....Philly at one time had a HUGE baggage problem. And NO their was not one baggage checker at both Portland and Philadelphia.
I will NEVER check a bag again!