united-kingdom property theft air-travel
Why doesn&#39;t London airport&#39;s Lost Baggage policy conflict with Theft by Finding or other UK law?
<p>I lost a bag whilst going through security on a recent flight through Heathrow Airport in London, UK.</p>

<p>Since getting home I've been online to try and track the item and have discovered that their process, <a href="https://www.heathrow.com/airport-guide/terminal-facilities-and-services/lost-property" rel="nofollow noreferrer">according to their website</a>, is:</p>

<blockquote>
  <ol>
  <li>Register for the online service,</li>
  <li>Find your item in their database,</li>
  <li>Submit a claim,</li>
  <li>Pay a fee to reclaim an item,</li>
  <li>Pay postage to have it sent to you.</li>
  </ol>
</blockquote>

<p>I fully accept the paying for the postage to have it sent to me, and to a lesser extent I accept paying a fee for the storage and processing of my item, which takes extra resources (and hence extra costs) on their part. </p>

<p>But my query is about the way they have implemented this service charge which I am presuming I have to pay even if I turn up to collect my item in person and don't use their website (I doubt they would accept this). My question also hangs on the assumption that if I do not pay the fee requested to reclaim the item then they will refuse to return the item.</p>

<p>My question is, <strong>what prevents this policy, of keeping the item until I pay a fee, from conflicting with the UK laws</strong> such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_by_finding" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Theft By Finding</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_conversion" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Criminal Conversion</a> or perhaps (tenuously I feel) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackmail" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Blackmail</a>?</p>

<p>It <em>feels</em> to me like this should be breaking a law, perhaps one of the above or perhaps another, as (if my presumptions are correct) they are effectively showing the intention to deprive me permanently of my property. Why isn't this the case?</p>

<p>A charge of Theft by Finding is unlikely to succeed, as by posting details of found property on the website Heathrow Airport have made a good faith attempt to find the owner.</p>

<p>There might be some comedy value in suggesting Blackmail, but not much more than that. (You knew that one was tenuous.)</p>

<p>There appear to be some grounds for arguing the "control" aspect of Criminal Conversion, and if you were to do that they may release your lost baggage to you in person or to your appointed agent.</p>

<p>The problem is what would happen next. Heathrow Airport would have grounds for arguing that they had made a good faith attempt to return your baggage, that you had used their system to determine they had your baggage, but that you had chosen to avoid a nominal charge (less than £20, according to the website) to use that system. This would give them grounds to seek to recover the actual cost of storing, locating the owner, and handing the baggage over to them (likely to be more than £20), plus legal fees for recovery of cost (likely to be a lot more than £20). Their argument would be that they had incurred costs in attempting to return your baggage to you, and that it was your responsibility that you had refused an amount that is likely to be considered a reasonable fee for this activity.</p>

<p>Short answer : It looks like there's nothing preventing you from pointing out a potential conflict, and it's a nice question for academic debate. But I wouldn't do it.</p>

<p><em>Edit : If you've used the link to missingx.com from the heathrow.com website, you could also have been deemed to have accepted the charge ("if you want to reclaim your item") at point 4.</em></p>

<p>In most countries, one possible and completely legal action when you find what you think is lost property, is to completely ignore it. From that point of view, they don't have to do anything. </p>

<p>And if lost property blocks passengers, and is a possible security risk, they would be allowed to move it where it's not in the way and where it is no danger. </p>

<p>They are not <em>taking</em> your luggage, you are leaving it. It would be very hard to come up with an argument that they should do work for you for free.</p>
