She Tracked Her Missing Luggage With an Apple Device — Straight to an Airport Employee's Home Paola Garcia flew into Terminal 4 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport last month when she noticed her luggage never made it to the carousel — then her Apple Watch started pinging.
By Emily Rella
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
Many travelers drop an Apple Airtag inside luggage to track their belongings in case they are misplaced or delayed — but using an Apple Watch is not as routine.
For one Florida flyer, however, an Apple Watch helped find the location of another Apple device inside her stolen luggage — and she tracked it to the home of an airport employee.
Paola Garcia flew into Terminal 4 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport last month, though her hardshell luggage didn't arrive at baggage claim after being forced to check the bag at boarding. She said the bag contained her MacBook and two Apple Watches.
Related: Woman Traces Luggage via Apple AirTag to 'Sketchy' Apartment
The college student needed the laptop for an exam the next day.
Spirit Airlines asked Garcia for her address to mail the missing luggage. The next morning, her Apple Watch began pinging a location to another Watch she had at home from a mysterious location fifteen minutes from the airport.
"I said how can Spirit deliver my suitcase there," Garcia told local outlet Local 10. "I needed my computer. I [had a] test that day."
Garcia then decided to drive to the address herself, which ended up being the home of 29-year-old airport retail store employee, Junior Bazile, who was working the day Garcia's luggage went missing. Upon arrival, Garcia said that she saw tons of suitcases, videotaped them, and called the police.
Police charged Bazile with grand theft after surveillance footage showed the suspect removing the electronics from Garcias's bag and putting them into clear plastic bags. He faces five to 30 years in prison and fines from $5,000 to $10,000.
Garcia's items were already gone when authorities arrived at the house.
Related: How an Apple AirTag Found Luggage Better than an Airline
Spirit Airlines told Local 10 that it sent a reimbursement check to Garcia last month and maintained that they were not aware of any Spirit employee being involved in the scheme.
"We take any allegation of this nature seriously, and we are investigating," the airline said.
