Baggage Bandits Grab and Go Act Too Easy?

Phoenix Police Bust Couple for Luggage Thefts from Baggage Carousels

(CBS)  If you lost a bag at the aiport in Phoenix recently - it may have been stolen.

Police in Arizona have busted a husband and wife team accused of stealing hundreds of pieces of luggage right from the baggage carousel at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport.

Early Show consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen took a closer look at the couple's suspected sneaky operation and shared her story with CBS resident veterinarian, Dr. Debbye Turner Bell.

Authorities found hundreds of pieces of luggage in the home of Keith and Stacey King. The couple is accused of stealing the bag from the carousels and then selling the stolen goods for cash.

Police say Keith King would walk right into baggage claim, grab a bag, walk out and drive off. And as Koeppen found out - walking off with someone's bag is really not that hard to do.

Koeppen wanted it see what would happen when she took a bag from one of the busiest airports in America - New York's LaGuardia.

So, Koeppen grabbed a bag belonging to a woman from Michigan, who was willing to let her take it to see if anyone questioned her. Nobody did. Koeppen walked right out the door.

"Were you surprised I was just able to walk off with your bag?" Koeppen asked the passenger.

"Yes, very. It was very easy," said Regina Gohier, a passenger from Michigan.

An Early Show producer was able to walk off with a bag of a willing passenger at a small airport in Burbank, Calif.

"If I was on the phone texting, you could just take it and I'd be like I totally missed it," said Liz Nemeth, a passenger from Burbank.

Koeppen went back inside to baggage claim at LaGuardia and tried again. This time taking the bag of a passenger from Rhode Island.

Although the passenger knew Koeppen was taking it, yet again, nobody stopped her, even though this was the second bag she grabbed in less than 10 minutes.

"It's always in back of your mind that there's really no security when you're walking out," said the Kelly Beckett, a passenger from Newport, R.I.

It's the airlines, not the airports, which are responsible for the safe arrival of your bag, but with cost cutting moves, most airlines have done away with checking claim tickets as passengers leave the baggage area.

"There's so little theft now that it just doesn't make a lot of sense to spend a lot of money trying to prevent a couple of bags from being stolen," said Mike Boyd, an airline industry expert.

A silver lining, industry experts say the chance of losing your bag is low. The chance of it being stolen even lower.

"And if your bag is lost or stolen, you need to file a complaint with the airline immediately, but there is a cap on what they'll pay you if your bag is gone for good," Koeppen told Bell.

She also suggested not checking a bag if you don't have to; don't take your time getting to the baggage claim and use a use bag that stands out from the rest.

E-mail Susan Koeppen

Susan on Twitter

[jwesel1]

It pays to stand closest to the chute where the baggage comes out of.