Baggage found in Toronto street tracked to owner with help of Air Canada flight attendant, delivery driver
A delivery driver spotted two pieces of luggage sitting in the middle of the street in downtown Toronto with Air Canada baggage tags fastened to their handles on the weekend. Instead of ignoring the lost luggage, he loaded them onto his truck – marking the first moment in a chain of altruistic efforts to reunite a stranger with her belongings.
The driver was heading down Portland Street approaching Queen Street West when he spotted the bags on Saturday around 6 a.m. and ultimately decided to drop them off at a police station, according to his friend Nadine Araksi.
Their dedication to the cause didn’t end there. Araksi said she posted about the bags in a Facebook group of Leslieville residents.
The post caught the eye of Miriam Swartz, who works for Air Canada as a flight attendant. The Leslieville resident reached out to Araksi to try and help track down the owner of the missing bags.
“If you want to [direct message] the luggage tags I might be able to do a search as I work for Air Canada,” she commented on the Facebook post.
Once Araksi sent a picture of the baggage tags to Swartz, she input the 10 digits printed on the label into her employee app. “It helps to retrace the steps of lost luggage,” Swartz explained to CTV News Toronto.
From there, she said she found the passenger’s name and travel information, revealing they had taken a flight from Saskatoon to Toronto on Saturday.
“Just imagine if it happened to you, right? It’s just nice when people come together,” Swartz said.
Araksi and Swartz found a woman with the same name as the passenger who had played on a Saskatoon sports team. It was a shot in the dark but Swartz sent the team an email describing the series of events. “They said, ‘Yes, you found the right girl,’” she recalled.
Meanwhile, Kristin Hood, the owner of the luggage, said she was spending her first day in Toronto in shock after packing all of her belongings into two hard-shell bags and moving to the city.
Photos Kristine Hood took on her flight to Toronto (left) and of the CN Tower on her first night in the city on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2023 (Supplied). Her brother had picked her up from Toronto Pearson International Airport on Saturday, which was also Hood’s 25th birthday. To celebrate, they made a beeline to a bar hop downtown and left the car in a parking lot overnight.
“I guess somebody went to the back of his truck and pulled out the bags,” Hood said. “Someone stole them and they left them in the middle of the street and walked away.”
The next morning she said her brother broke the news about the bags. “I was shocked and stunned in the moment,” she said. “I literally had nothing.”
Just eight hours later, her upset subsided when she received a call from Air Canada reporting her luggage was waiting for her at a Toronto police station.
"I was kind of in disbelief," she said.
It’s unclear who drew the final connection between Hood and her belongings, but since then, she’s been wondering who the good Samaritan is, never having spoken to the delivery driver, Leslieville resident or Air Canada flight attendant who were determined to reunite her with her bags.
“Often we feel like we’re so busy and we don’t take a moment to help another human being but when we work together, sometimes things work out,” Araksi said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'He didn't want to die': Family of Calgary man killed in standoff speaks out
Family of a Calgary man killed after a 30-hour standoff with police last week are speaking out, sharing details of the tense and heart-wrenching experience.
Toronto family doctor who called patient's body 'perfect' suspended for 3 months: tribunal
A family doctor in Toronto has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal found that he failed to follow proper protocols while examining a patient's breasts and made inappropriate comments about her body.
Ohio mom who left toddler alone 10 days when she went on vacation pleads guilty to aggravated murder
An Ohio mother whose 16-month-old daughter died after being left home alone in a playpen for 10 days last summer while she went on vacation was sentenced Monday to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Canadian commander of volunteer fighter group dies in Ukraine
A Canadian-born commander of the so-called Norman Brigade, a volunteer fighting group in Ukraine, has died.
5 charged in Calgary kidnappings that targeted women
Calgary police have charged five men in a pair of kidnappings last year that targeted innocent victims.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Woman, 18, killed by co-worker's vehicle on Highway 1 in Moose Jaw
Moose Jaw police say an 18-year-old woman who was at work has died from injuries she sustained in a collision with a vehicle being driven by her co-worker last Thursday.
Retired teacher pleads guilty to paying for sex with 15-year-old in Collingwood, Ont.
In a Barrie courtroom on Monday, a retired high school teacher from the Niagara Region pleaded guilty to sexual touching and obtaining sexual services from a 15-year-old boy in Collingwood in 2021.
MPs to vote on NDP motion calling on Canada to recognize Palestinian statehood
Members of Parliament will vote Monday on a motion from the federal New Democrats, calling on Canada to recognize the 'State of Palestine,' among a range of other calls to action in regards to the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict.