New York – EL AL Israel Airlines turned one New York woman’s panic into relief after a forgotten backpack containing $50,000 worth of jewelry and irreplaceable business documents was discovered and safely returned by EL AL employees.
Upon arrival from Israel into JFK International Airport, the EL AL passenger accidentally left her backpack at the baggage claim area next to the luggage carousel. The bag contained over $50,000 worth of jewelry, including an 18 carat gold rope necklace, Tahitian black pearls, white pearls and diamond rings. There was also a laptop, her pocketbook with personal items plus the important business papers.
It was only upon arrival at her home in Queens when the passenger discovered that the backpack was missing. She immediately returned to JFK and, on her way, received a call from the EL AL information desk that the bag was found and all the items were safe. The EL AL agent found her cell phone number on a prescription bottle that was in the back pack.
“I cannot express enough how grateful I am to EL AL and commend the employees who found the bag and returned it to me,” the customer explained in a thank you note to the airline. “I am not sure this would have turned out the same with any other airline.”
EL AL told YWN, “as always, EL AL we are committed to providing superior customer service to its passengers prior to, during and after all flights.”
(Eli Rowe / YWN-32)
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8 Responses
oh no! it would have been better if they werent mefarsem the groiseh mitzvah they did because now customs will be down her back for what she did.
mitzvah haba’a ba’veira! ;-0
tzorich iyun how such a thing can happen to a person- the gemara in bava metziah says that a person is memashmeish b’kisso all the time when they are carrying big money- and she didnt notice the whole way home? intresant
farfrumt,
you need to be dan lkaf zechus. maybe she was saying tehillim for 10 hours straight
So she left the bag by the carousel, and got out without it. Hmmm, gotta guess she did not declare it because I’m certain it would have come up and been inspected during her conversation with customs.
So to get it past customs she left it on the plane where the authorities would be free to spend hours checking it out (if they wanted to spend that long on it) before returning it to her?
Isn’t anyone going to comment on what a mitzvah of hashovas aveydah was done?
To #2 i’ll guess she assumed it was in the trunk the whole way home.
Guess she’s lucky it wasn’t blown up as a “chefetz chashud”…
And how could she not have contact information in/on the backpack? When we fly, our carry-on gets a tag with our name and a phone number on it.
Why all the speculation that something illegal was attempted.
Many people pack their valuables (as well as medication) in theior carry-ons as a precaution against lost or delayed baggage.
The back-pack was left at a baggage carousel, not on the airplane.