Charged: 43-year-old man accused of stealing luggage from carousel at Mitchell International Airport

MILWAUKEE COUNTY -- A 43-year-old Milwaukee man is criminally charged, accused of stealing bags from the baggage claim at General Mitchell International Airport.

Langston Austin

The accused is Langston Austin, who is facing one felony count of theft (value $5,000-$10,000).

A criminal complaint filed in this case indicates on November 6th, Milwaukee County Sheriff's deputies began investigating complaints from several airline passengers that their luggage went missing from the airport on November 5th.

Deputies obtained video footage of the baggage claim carousel, and saw that on two separate occasions on November 5th (the first around 2:30 p.m., and the second around 9:30 p.m.), the same man approached the baggage carousel with an empty, wheeled cart, and proceeded to load several bags off of the carousel and onto the cart -- pushing the loaded cart out of the baggage claim area and out the airport's doors.

Video footage from a Milwaukee County bus showed the same man boarding a bus with the luggage he had just taken from the carousel.

Airport security officials were on the lookout for the man, and on November 11th, he's accused of returning to the baggage carousel with an empty card -- again loading bags off of the carousel and onto the card.

This time, a Southwest Airlines employee confronted him and found he had no claim for the bags -- so she took the luggage away from him -- placing it back on the carousel.

The complaint indicates the man then left the baggage claim area, and was caught outside by deputies.

He was wearing the same jacket he had worn during the thefts on November 5th, according to the complaint.

Officials met with several of the people who reported their luggage missing, and had them take a look at photos of the luggage Austin is accused of stealing. Several of them were able to positively identify their luggage.

According to the complaint, the total value of the luggage and items identified was $8,522.

Austin is set to appear in court on December 2nd for his preliminary hearing.