How to be sure not to get stolen baggage in a night bus?

Question

I planned to take 2 bus for a total of 16 hours trip in few weeks and as I hear a lot of problem about stolen luggage (Especially about baggage in the hold).

I technically cannot check permanently for each stops + night.

So my question is: Do you have any Idea about tips or tools I can use for instance if never the suitcase become too far from me ?

It would mean that someone put it out of the bus and technically that it is being stolen in the moment.

So I would also be glad to hear you, any advice is welcome.

edit: This is a cumbersome airplane suitcase.

Answer 1

Get a bicycle cable lock - the kind with a long, flexible cord that coils like a spring.

Thread the cable through the luggage handle and secure it to any convenient post in the luggage area. Be careful not to create a tripping hazard.

Answer 2

One option: keep the luggage on the bus with you, if that's possible. Store it in an overhead bin, for example.

Another option: I believe there are RFID tags that you can track with an app on your phone. If you put a tag in each suitcase, you can check on its location every time the bus stops. If you see your bag "walking away" from the bus, you could jump off and stop the theft (maybe).

Answer 3

A simple trick is to make your luggage unattractive (but not too much). This is no guaranteed way to avoid theft, but a preventive action.

Immagine the situation:
A dishonest passanger takes their own luggage from the hold. There's your shiny new, expensive looking and big suitcase in there as well. A thief might hope for valuable items in there and take it.

To make it less attractive, you could try:

• Put it under the other luggage if you can. Something that can't be seen cannot be stolen.
• Make it look old and dirty: Dilute brown water color in a spray bottle and spray "dirt" over the bottom half or third of your suitcase and the wheels.
• Add a hint to undesirable content: Plaster childish stickers on each side, then wear them down by scrubbing them with a wet dish washing sponge.

Answer 4

Instead of an RFID tag as @BrettFromLA mentioned, you can use a GPS tracker. You can put one of these in your luggage and check up on it from a cell phone. Here is a website with some examples, but you can also do a google search for "track baggage with GPS".

The problem with RFID tags is that they have a maximum range, and you can't tell where they are, only their distance from you. A good GPS tracker will get rid of these issues, allowing you to track it from any distance in real-time. For more information on RFID, see here.