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On the 30th March 2025 around 6:05pm my wife boarded the 423 bus at T5 having arrived from Berlin. I was with her and had become distracted by my phone not working (turned out to be a network outage). When we boarded we both failed to notice that she had left a handbag on the bench opposite the bus stop. She noticed only when we were getting off 15 minutes late and in panic she went back but the bag was gone.
Its contents were a work iPhone, some jewellery I bought her almost 30 years ago, 2 fridge magnets a box of Underberg, make up and 2 diaries; a personal day to day diary and her cancer journal along with a box of morphine tablets!
She trawled the Heathrow lost and found web site everyday since but nothing. Until that is, yesterday, when a bag was listed as being found on the 30th that matched the description. She claimed it and Heathrow replied. It was a very vague reply, which I suspect is understandable, and so today she went to T3. It was indeed her bag and she paid the £25 to get it back with everything intact.
It was only handed in on the 4th April and it took Heathrow a further 12 days to list it.
So firstly a huge thank you to whoever the individual was who handed it in. You will probably never know the distress she felt at losing the bag and just how much it meant to her to get it back, especially the diaries!
Both of us are hugely critical of Heathrow but today they have covered themselves in some glory. Paying to get it back was a pain, as is the location of the office in the bowels of the earth near T3 with the additional need to pay for parking. The service could surely be delivered off airport and the listing of lost items could surely be better, but these things aside my wife and I are hugely grateful to those who helped her be reunited with the bag and all of its contents.
Posting this on the BA section as it was T5 and it is more likely than not to have been a BA employee or a T5 employee.
Thank you
@Paul That is heartwarming to read (the £25 fee and parking charges aside). Was everything still inside? There are good people about. Several years ago at BCN we had just used the shuttle bus to go from the terminal we had just landed at to the terminal attached to the train station and my OH left bag with cash / passport etc on the bus. A stranger came running after us and said I think you left your bag on the bus. They were in a hurry to check in for their own flight and weren’t entirely sure it was my OH as they were a few rows behind on the bus and just noticed the bag as they walked past but still took the time to help. My OH sprinted back to the bus and retrieved bag before it moved off. Would’ve been a very annoying start to the holiday.
I think you’re being a little unfair to the lost property people at Heathrow – which is run by a commercial company.
Last year there were an average of just shy of 1,300 flight movements a day (thats combined landings and take offs).
So there is potential for a heck of a lot of lost property.
And that’s before people start leaving things in lounges, bars and shops.
Last year I needed to do something at the lounge customer service desk at T5 and the staff member was completing a left property form which included putting it in a sealed bag before it was sent over to T3. Just chatting she told me that was about the 6th item she had dealt with already that day ranging from earrings to phones, headphones and laptops.
As your item was left at a TFL bus stand there is a whole separate lost property system involved and it might not have even made it back to Heathrow at all but ended up with TFL. Another passenger may have seen you board a bus and then handed it to another bus driver for example. Who would have then handed it in at their depot with a report of where it was found and someone deemed it should go back to LHR.
I do agree the office location is very much not ideal. I recall it’s only accessible by stairs and no lift when I had to make an enquiry about something I had left in the VS lounge. I had to leave my bags with a HAL employee. But having it off the HAL estate would make it less not more accessible.
My son left his phone in CCR or on the plane – no luck. But he also left a phone on a local London bus, and it was handed in and returned to him (via the bus depot). Let’s not forget the honesty of most people, and be the same!
Even BA managed to reconcile me with my bag (broken), 6 days into a 7 day vacation. Thanks BA for the new summer wear! 😊
So glad to hear and it is just as important to share such story as the not-so-happy-ending ones. Story like this does brighten up my day up and restore my faith in humanity. Thanks.
@Paul I know that the finder of property that is handed into my local Police are entitled to claim 10% of the value of the find. So a bag (value?) jewellery (value?) and cash etc is added together and 10% reward agreed. If it is not agreed (maybe due to the valuation of jewellery etc) then the items are held on to by the Police for independent assessment of worth. Of course not many people claim their find reward, but in your case you may have got off lightly.
<I know that the finder of property that is handed into my local Police are entitled to claim 10% of the value of the find.
No, that’s not a thing. That would be a whole load of crimes (theft/blackmail). Just be nice, and hope if you’ve lost our bag/phone that someone just as “loving the world” as you helps to return it.
<I know that the finder of property that is handed into my local Police are entitled to claim 10% of the value of the find.
No, that’s not a thing. That would be a whole load of crimes (theft/blackmail). Just be nice, and hope if you’ve lost our bag/phone that someone just as “loving the world” as you helps to return it.
Unfortunately for you @Ihar this is the case in Scots law (I’m not sure where in the world you are) with the Police being the initial arbiter. I’ve seen it done. Anyway, thanks for your contribution and as you say, just be nice….
@BAFlyerIHGStayer It was not so much a criticism as an observation. The location of the office and the method they use to list items on their web site and how they then communicate are far from ideal A single image of the bag posted on the web site would have told told us immediately if it were hers.
The costs of retrieval for either a high value item or in this case, simply items of personal value is not unreasonable. However you then face the costs of parking all with absolutely no guarantee that the bag is yours. I get it is a commercial enterprise but £15 for 45 mins parking is very easy to add on top of the price of retrieval.
The contents were unique, my wife’s names and email were easy to locate, the prescribed drugs had her name and address yet none of this is used. Even when in their office they requested payment before bring the bag out and she had to ask them to show her the bag to ensure it was her’s.
I dont wish to mar this tale by moaning about Heathrow. The person who found it will never know how grateful she is, indeed I was. That was what I wanted to get over. I just think Heathrow could do better.
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Unfortunately for you @Ihar this is the case in Scots law (I’m not sure where in the world you are) with the Police being the initial arbiter. I’ve seen it done. Anyway, thanks for your contribution and as you say, just be nice….https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1982/45/part/VI
It seems it is, though I think this could be contested on various grounds. In England/Wales I think this would amount to blackmail (demands for money). But thanks for correcting me!
LHR does make lost property a faff by any stretch and outsourcing to another money grabber is classic LHR. My experience was that we never got the items off two flights despite BA ground staff saying it was normal practice to sweep the aircraft for left items and hand them to lost property.
As a counter example: I left a Kindle on a Cathay flight into TPE (45m passengers vs LHR 80m) and contacted the airline. They had my Kindle waiting for me at the ticket desk on my return.
I also left a Kindle (there is a pattern here) on an AA flight into BOS and when I contacted the airline, they arranged for it to be Fedex’d to my employer’s Boston office.
I’m not saying LHR needs to be this good, but some humanity would not go amiss. I know it’s fashionable to crap on LHR but it’s not just the popularity of the airport that makes this so.
BTW, I am better a checking for electronics now. Too good in fact as I once went through HKIA transit security and spotted I’d taken my neighbour’s iPad in addition to mine. I gave it to a Cathay agent and I am sure they sorted it though.
I left my Kindle on a BA flight into LHR last month. It was listed on the lost property site within two days and posted to me immediately. Not cheap but very efficient.
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