For a convicted thief like Anthony Hargrove, baggage carousels at Chicago’s airports have apparently been an attractive target.
Since the 1990s, Hargrove has been arrested at least 12 times on charges of stealing bags in the arrivals areas of Midway and O’Hare airports, and at least five times he has been convicted.
The 59-year-old’s history of theft went largely unnoticed by the public until last month, when police said he fled from O’Hare with what turned out to be a rare Indian guitar, a crime that drew international attention after the victim described the loss on Facebook. Police nabbed Hargrove a few days later as he allegedly tried to steal more luggage.
Hargrove’s string of arrests and convictions for theft over the decades highlight the vulnerabilities of airport baggage claims, areas that are often barrier-free, open to the public and near quick escape routes to public transit and away from the airport.
Airlines bear responsibility for security at baggage carousels at O’Hare and Midway, but many carriers believe their liability ends once the bags have been delivered, aviation experts said. Ultimately, the space is a public area, resulting in airlines and airports blaming each other when something goes missing, they added.
“Once it hits the carousel, boy, that is the grayest area of all in my mind,” said Joe Brancatelli, editor of a noncommercial website for business travelers.
Baggage claim theft happens regularly, aviation experts said, but not enough for airlines and airports to spend money to mitigate the risk. Airlines report the theft figures to the U.S. Department of Transportation, but the data is not separated from lost or misplaced luggage figures.
Before 9/11, security guards stood by baggage claim exits at many airports, ensuring that luggage tags matched the ticket claims held by travelers.
But airlines have largely stopped doing that because it was too costly, and they decided there wasn’t enough luggage theft for that measure to be necessary, said Michael Boyd, a Colorado-based aviation consultant.
Baggage claim security today is handled differently across the country.
For example, airlines are in charge of monitoring the carousels at airports in New York City, Atlanta, Denver and Los Angeles, but the responsibility is managed by both the airlines and airports at Reagan National and Dulles International airports near Washington.
Airlines have security cameras mounted in the terminals, and airport police walk the grounds at airports across the country. But neither tactic is foolproof, the experts said.
“It’s a bigger problem than most people know,” said Scott T. Mueller, who has worked in the commercial airline industry for 24 years and wrote the book “The Empty Carousel.” “It’s just too easy. Most of the bags are on wheels. Even if the bag weighs 200 pounds … you pop the handle, and you’re rolling out the door.”
At O’Hare’s Terminal 2, where Hargrove allegedly stole Canadian musician Harry Manx’s Indian guitar in February, a wide space abuts the luggage carousels. Nearby exit doors lead to taxi stands and shuttle bus stops.
Several security cameras overlook the carousels. When flights arrive, one or two baggage agents stand near the carousels as travelers claim their luggage. Sets of stairwells, escalators and elevators nearby lead to a hallway on the lower level that takes travelers to the CTA’s O’Hare Blue Line station.
Prosecutors said Hargrove was seen exiting the terminal and getting on the Blue Line.
On Feb. 21, Hargrove allegedly was seen on a surveillance camera stealing a Mohan veena guitar and bag off the carousel. The theft went viral on social media after Manx lamented the loss on Facebook and likened his signature instrument to an old friend.
Afterward, Chicago police kept a close eye on the terminal in case Hargrove returned. Three days later, he did. Officers spotted him pushing a cart and wearing the same clothing he wore during the earlier theft but with a different knit cap, according to a police report.
The officers watched as Hargrove walked to the US Airways baggage carousel and placed four bags onto the cart, covering them with a jacket, the report stated. He tried to leave, but police stopped him.
“You got me. You saw me. It is what it is,” Hargrove told police while he was placed under arrest, according to the report.
One of the bags belonged to Michael Hawthorne
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, an Arizona real estate investor in town on business. He said he didn’t arrive at baggage claim right away because he needed to recharge his cellphone at the gate.Ten minutes later, he said, he received a call from an airline employee who told Hawthorne his bag was “not available right now” and that he needed to get to the baggage area quickly. Officers then escorted him and two other Arizona travelers to an airport police station, and they retrieved their stolen luggage.
Hawthorne said his bag didn’t carry anything valuable, but the experience was an eye-opener. He travels regularly and has never had luggage stolen.
“There is a hole in security that I didn’t recognize,” he said in a telephone interview.
Hargrove has built a rap sheet in Illinois that spans five decades, according to court records.
Over the years he has been convicted of other crimes, including rape, armed robbery, burglary and aggravated battery, according to the Illinois Department of Corrections. Cook County prosecutors also said he had unspecified cases in North Carolina, Alabama, Florida and Kentucky and was a fugitive wanted in Tennessee.
Hargrove’s arrests and convictions in luggage thefts in Cook County stretch back to at least 1998. He’s also been arrested at least twice over the years in luggage thefts at the Greyhound bus station in the South Loop, but those cases were dropped.
Police reports vaguely describe the luggage Hargrove has stolen, including bags of clothes and cases carrying golf clubs. They also show what appears to be an array of aliases he has given police, including Larry Willis, Larry James, Thomas Havery, Carl Williams, Jerry Kilmichael and Anthony Wells.
In October 2001, Hargrove allegedly stole a suitcase from a carousel at Midway that belonged to a man named Mark Levitt, police reports show.
Levitt, who lives in Chicago’s northern suburbs, recalled arriving at Midway from a business trip that night and stopped for a bathroom break before walking to the carousel to pick up his bag. By the time he arrived, Levitt noticed there were only a few pieces of luggage left to be claimed. When he spotted his suitcase, he saw a man pick it up and start to walk away with it. Levitt walked over and grabbed the man.
“I held him there until the cops came,” Levitt recalled.
Officers who arrived at the carousel a short time later weren’t surprised to see Hargrove, he said. . “The cops were making a joke of it because they know the guy,” Levitt recalled.
But the charges against Hargrove eventually were dropped, a surprise to Levitt, who acknowledged he didn’t follow the case and did not recall being asked to come to court.
When Hargrove allegedly swiped the Indian guitar last month, he was on parole for a 2011 theft conviction for stealing several pieces of luggage at Midway.
During that arrest on May 13, 2011, Hargrove was seen pushing a wheelchair with the stolen luggage through a CTA pedway, his arrest report shows. While standing on the ground floor, police recognized Hargrove from “previously circulated photos and arrests,” according to the report.
When he was arrested, officers found four baggage claim tags in his left hand, none of which bore his name.
On a recent afternoon, Hargrove’s stepfather declined comment when approached by reporters at the family’s one-story brick home in the Garfield Ridge community. But when asked about Hargrove’s crimes, a man who identified himself as Hargrove’s younger brother replied, “Everybody makes mistakes.”
“I’m really disappointed in him right now,” the man said, declining further comment.
The family said Hargrove served in the Marines, but military officials could not confirm his service.
The Chicago Department of Aviation would not say whether luggage theft is a problem at the airports. Both the police and aviation departments work with the airlines if they request help for “unusual or an increasing number of baggage thefts or other incidents,” Karen Pride, spokeswoman for the Aviation Department, wrote in an email.
Chicago police spokesman Adam Collins said in an email that police have seen an overall decline in thefts at both airports. But Collins earlier would not provide figures of reported luggage thefts, which he said are not distinguished in reports from all other thefts, saying to do so would be too labor-intensive for the department.
Several airlines based in Chicago’s two airports declined to talk about security in the baggage claim areas or didn’t return calls when contacted by the Tribune.
Some other airports do keep track of luggage thefts. At Denver International Airport, 40 thefts were reported last year in the baggage claim area. Authorities recorded 172 luggage thefts at New York City’s Kennedy International Airport in 2013, though the figure does not break down where the thefts occurred.
Robert Loeb, a veteran criminal defense lawyer and former prosecutor, said stolen luggage crimes can be difficult to pursue since many theft victims live out of state and don’t want to return to pursue the charges. That’s legally problematic, he said, because hearsay evidence — such as an officer claiming a victim said the theft occurred — won’t help prosecutors when they go to trial.
“The prosecutor does need a victim to come to court during an actual trial to say that he, the victim, is the actual owner and didn’t give permission to the defendant,” Loeb said.
Miami resident Melissa McAndrew told the Tribune that it seemed like “too much of a bother” to take off work and fly to Chicago from Florida to help authorities prosecute Hargrove for allegedly taking her duffel bag in January 2011. Plus, her bag was returned within a few days. The felony theft charges against Hargrove were eventually dropped.
“I didn’t get the idea that he was a repeat offender,” McAndrew said in a telephone interview, adding that police were not insistent on her traveling back to Chicago.
Manx, the musician whose Indian guitar was stolen, said he never considered the unrestricted baggage claim areas a problem, but he now believes improvements should be made. He was reunited with his guitar last week, a moment he said brought relief and happiness. Now he plans on returning to Chicago to make sure the charges against Hargrove stick.
“I think it’s worth making the effort,” he said. “The fact is, this guy really needs to get off the streets. I don’t want other people to have the same experience I’ve had.”
Tribune reporter Steve Schmadeke contributed.
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