Many of us have suffered the frustration of standing in an airport after a long flight, watching the luggage on the carousel go round, only to discover your case has not arrived at the same destination as you. Normally you get your belongings back, eventually, maybe after a few weeks waiting while the airline finally locates your bag.

But spare a thought for April Gavin, who recently received her lost luggage which was found 53 months after she reported it missing.

Travelling from Chicago back to her Oregon home in August 2018 with United Airlines after a business trip, April discovered her suitcase did not make the flight with her. After refusing the airline’s compensation offer, she insisted they try and find her belongings, and four months later in 2018 she was informed her case’s whereabouts remained a mystery, with the airline’s offer now upped to $1,200.

Cashing in the compensation, she replaced most of the lost items, but in January this year she was contacted and told her suitcase had arrived – this time at Houston airport, on a flight from Honduras.

When April was reunited with her luggage, she found the suitcase had suffered wear and tear and, suffering from what she described as “a huge phobia of bugs”, she left her case on the porch for a week. When she’d plucked up the courage to open it, she discovered all the contents inside were intact, with prescription glasses, hairdryer and laptop charger, along with her clothes, all still there.