Passengers suddenly seem to have taken a penchant for leaving behind bags full of cash and valuables at the IGI Airport with the total figure for the year till October exceeding Rs. 3 core in cash in all possible currencies and valuables. What's more almost 40% of these bags are still lying with the airport authorities as they haven't yet been claimed by their owners.

According to security officials almost 5000 such bags had been found during the period from January to October this year out of which only 3,000 had been returned to their owners after proper verification while the rest were still lying with the airport management for want of a claimant.

Even the month of November has seen some valuable finds with bags being found stuffed with Rs 80,000 on one occasion, $1930 and 3000 Euros on another occasion and Rs 221,900 on a third occasion. All these bags have, however, been returned to their grateful owners.

But not all passengers are this lucky and there have been instances of mobiles being stolen at the airport which have never been found again. Apart from the involvement of airport staff in these incidents, there have also been cases when fellow passengers themselves have walked off with other traveler's valuables.

Another interesting trend noticed for the past few months has been passengers carrying huge sums of money in their check-in bags so as to avoid being detected by officials of agencies like Income Tax and DRI at the security check counters. When these passengers find their cash missing from their baggage, all they can do is informally report this matter to the airline officials requesting for their bag to be returned in case it's found with specific instructions not to lodge a police complaint or involve the authorities in any manner.