Raw video: Luggage found in Houston dumpster

HOUSTON -- Airline workers are trying to match 68 pieces of stolen luggage with lost claims while police search for clues into the theft of the bags that were found in a trash container outside a pet store near George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The bags found Tuesday were from passengers of as many as nine airlines and all appeared to have been rummaged through, said Sgt.  Nate McDuell, a Houston police spokesman. Authorities have not identified any suspects or a motive. They are interviewing employees of Pet City, who reported the luggage Tuesday, and people who may have handled the luggage at the airport.

McDuell said he was not aware of a theft like this involving so many pieces of luggage.

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Airline workers are trying to match 68 pieces of stolen luggage with lost claims.

“This is certainly out of the ordinary,” said Continental Airlines spokeswoman Mary Clark. She said she had never seen anything like this happen before.

Houston-based Continental is sorting through the baggage, Clark said, matching pieces with lost claims people filed. The bags were from international and domestic flights that were scheduled within the last week or so, she said.

The vast majority of lost luggage is simply delayed and is ultimately returned to owners within 24 hours, she said. “It’s very unusual that theft is involved in misdirected luggage.”

Linda Killion, the office manager at Pet City, said two employees checking in at work Tuesday morning saw suitcases peering from the top of an industrial trash bin. “That’s how full it was,” she said. The store had been closed since Saturday. The bin, at the front of the store, had been brought in after a fire earlier this month.

A few of the suitcases were empty, Killion said, but the majority still contained clothes, books and other personal items.

The employees called 911. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security came to the scene, as well as local police. Houston police are now handling the case.

“It was quite an adventure for us, to say the least,” Killion said.