I got back in town yesterday, and since I had more luggage than I left with (dad hit the motherlode for old film cameras at his local thrift store; mom uses working 35mm for her students and has a small collection of her own) mom said she would pick me up after she got out of work. So I was sitting in the claim area with my bags for about an hour, and had a literal front row seat for this:
Family with two toddlers and a baby in an umbrella stroller--I think they were on my flight from Baltimore, holy hell did that baby have a set of lungs on him----eventually winds up with four suitcases, a huge car seat, one of those giant Uppababy stroller/pram things, and four of those giant zipper bags that comforters are sold in that are overstuffed with clothes (and that was just the crap that had been checked through). Abusing the airlines "bags fly free" policy, but they probably had to pay for a lot of it--that stroller was definitely oversized. And the dad is eyeing a few other suitcases that have been circulating on the carousel for about ten minutes--obviously NOT theirs--but there were too many people including airline agents and TSA in the area. When an agent takes the orphan luggage into the baggage office the dad starts to follow him, but thinks better of it for some reason.
The toddlers of course are racing each other down the concourse with the suitcases--one of them is at one point sitting ON one suitcase (still pushing the other one) which is being pushed by his brother. I was seriously waiting for one or both of them to go flying; they did manage to piss off a pilot who took the handle of the bigger suitcase and guided the whole assemblage back to the parents. He said something to them, which stopped the antics but only until he left the area.
Then the kids somehow found two of the baggage carts that people had left outside the corral (you insert coins to unlock them and get it back when you return it to the corral), loaded them up with what little they could lift and started chasing each other around with them. One of the cart workers stopped them, took the carts back to the corral and locked them in.
At this point the dad goes outside and comes back a minute or so later with two more carts; the cart worker is still watching everything and stops him. He tries to press a $20 into her hand and she refuses, pointing up to the cameras. I didn't hear what was said but I don't think the dad understood how the carts worked and thought he could pay her to load them which the workers cannot do (or pay her off to ignore everything that was happening). A number of us passengers are now watching this unfold.
Eventually, the worker takes one cart and locks it up, leaving the family with one cart for all of their shit and a uniformed officer is now watching everything. The dad loaded the cart as much as he could and took it outside, while the mother stayed with the baby and (sorta) the rest of the luggage. She did wander away from it a few times, but not quite far enough away for the officer to do anything.. The whole thing reminded me of the riddle about the farmer with the corn, chicken, and fox--at any given time something had to be unattended that shouldn't be.
When I told mom I could entertain myself for an hour, this wasn't quite what I had in mind but amusing nonetheless.
Family with two toddlers and a baby in an umbrella stroller--I think they were on my flight from Baltimore, holy hell did that baby have a set of lungs on him----eventually winds up with four suitcases, a huge car seat, one of those giant Uppababy stroller/pram things, and four of those giant zipper bags that comforters are sold in that are overstuffed with clothes (and that was just the crap that had been checked through). Abusing the airlines "bags fly free" policy, but they probably had to pay for a lot of it--that stroller was definitely oversized. And the dad is eyeing a few other suitcases that have been circulating on the carousel for about ten minutes--obviously NOT theirs--but there were too many people including airline agents and TSA in the area. When an agent takes the orphan luggage into the baggage office the dad starts to follow him, but thinks better of it for some reason.
The toddlers of course are racing each other down the concourse with the suitcases--one of them is at one point sitting ON one suitcase (still pushing the other one) which is being pushed by his brother. I was seriously waiting for one or both of them to go flying; they did manage to piss off a pilot who took the handle of the bigger suitcase and guided the whole assemblage back to the parents. He said something to them, which stopped the antics but only until he left the area.
Then the kids somehow found two of the baggage carts that people had left outside the corral (you insert coins to unlock them and get it back when you return it to the corral), loaded them up with what little they could lift and started chasing each other around with them. One of the cart workers stopped them, took the carts back to the corral and locked them in.
At this point the dad goes outside and comes back a minute or so later with two more carts; the cart worker is still watching everything and stops him. He tries to press a $20 into her hand and she refuses, pointing up to the cameras. I didn't hear what was said but I don't think the dad understood how the carts worked and thought he could pay her to load them which the workers cannot do (or pay her off to ignore everything that was happening). A number of us passengers are now watching this unfold.
Eventually, the worker takes one cart and locks it up, leaving the family with one cart for all of their shit and a uniformed officer is now watching everything. The dad loaded the cart as much as he could and took it outside, while the mother stayed with the baby and (sorta) the rest of the luggage. She did wander away from it a few times, but not quite far enough away for the officer to do anything.. The whole thing reminded me of the riddle about the farmer with the corn, chicken, and fox--at any given time something had to be unattended that shouldn't be.
When I told mom I could entertain myself for an hour, this wasn't quite what I had in mind but amusing nonetheless.
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