legends · 4 min read ·
Unclaimed Baggage
An airline's lost-baggage file follows a case, a wooden box, and a tooth that the sea returns.
**Airline Baggage Services · Property Irregularity Report (PIR)**
**PIR ref:** LB-88214 · **Flight:** BR 402, Heathrow to Athens · **Date:** 3 Sept
**Passenger:** Nora Quill · **Bag description:** Black hard-shell case, 23 kg, brass lock, luggage tag *N. Quill, 14 Aster Road*
**Status:** Not located at destination.
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**Tracing agent's note (A. Hobb, 5 Sept)**
Bag last scanned at Heathrow Terminal 5, Bay 12. No further scans. Bag does not appear on any loading manifest after that point. Passenger reports she checked the bag in herself.
Passenger describes the bag contents as: clothes, a hairbrush, a photo album, and a small wooden box containing her mother's last tooth, which she carries with her when she travels. She says the box was not in the bag at check-in. She put it there at home, the night before, and locked the case herself.
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**Passenger's letter (received 9 Sept)**
*Dear Baggage Services,*
*I'm writing about the bag again. I know you've been trying. But please stop telling me the bag has been "located at an unknown station." I know where it is. It's in the cargo hold of a plane that doesn't exist, on a route that goes to the sea.*
*I haven't told the agent this. I'm not sure how. But the tag was still on the handle when I went to the carousel in Athens, and it said "N. Quill, 14 Aster Road." Under it, in my handwriting, someone had written "Delivery: come and get me."*
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**Tracing agent's note (A. Hobb, 12 Sept)**
Passenger's case located at the Athens baggage store. Case has been opened by staff as part of the tracing process. Contents: clothes, hairbrush, photo album. The wooden box is absent.
Photo album: contains twenty-two photographs of a woman, all taken at the same spot, a seaside wall, at different ages. In the last photograph, she is about thirty, and is standing at the wall with a wet hand pressed against the stone. Behind her, in the water, is a figure in a dark coat, standing very still, facing the wall.
The passenger's face has been cut out of every photograph.
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**Claim form (Nora Quill, 14 Sept)**
Item: Wooden box, containing one tooth.
Value: Priceless.
Estimated value (per insurance): £0.00.
Passenger notes: The box was taken from the case in Athens. I have now been told it is in the sea. I'd like it returned, or I'd like to know why the sea has it.
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**Tracing agent's note (A. Hobb, 18 Sept)**
Passenger has been informed that the case is in Athens and the box is not. Passenger asked to be put in contact with the local harbour authority. Contact made.
Harbour authority reply: a wooden box was recovered from the water off the breakwater at Piraeus on 14 Sept. It was dry. The lid was closed. Inside, there was a tooth, very small and white, lying in a bed of folded tissue, and a note in an unsteady hand: *Love, I'm at the wall. Please come and get me. I know the way.*
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**Passenger's letter (received 22 Sept)**
*Dear Baggage Services,*
*You've found the tooth. I'm grateful. But please don't tell me it's been returned. It hasn't. It's at the wall. I can't go to the wall. I've been told it's not allowed.*
*I've been to the airport every day since. I stand at the carousel and watch the bags come round. Last Thursday I saw my case. Someone had taken off the tag. And I saw the wooden box, on top of the case, with the lid open. The tooth wasn't in it. A small wet handprint was on the lid, pressed from the inside.*
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**PIR update (LB-88214, 30 Sept)**
Status: *Located. Passenger has been informed.*
Note: Passenger attended baggage services on 29 Sept and asked to be shown the case. Staff opened the case in the presence of the passenger. Contents: clothes, hairbrush, photo album, and a wooden box, lid closed.
Passenger declined to take the case. She asked for the box to be placed on the counter, facing the door. She said her mother would want to see the door before she came in.
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**Final PIR note (Airline, 2 Oct)**
Claim closed. Passenger was not seen at baggage services after 1 Oct. Her home address has been checked. The house is locked and unoccupied. The luggage tag on the front door is marked *N. Quill, 14 Aster Road, collected*.
The case was returned to the house on 2 Oct by the airline's courier. It has been left on the step. The lid of the wooden box is open. The tooth has been placed on the top, facing the street.