US Police use Apple AirTag to catch an airport worker who stole luggage

A thief was caught after stealing US$16,000 ($25,000) worth of items thanks to a $55 travel accessory.

US police recently tracked down luggage that was stolen from Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport in Florida using Apple AirTags a traveller had attached to their bags.

The location tracking device had last been active in Kathy Court in Mary Esther, Florida. After they cross-referenced the area against employee residences, they found that 19-year-old Giovanni De Luca, an airline subcontractor, lived nearby.

In July, a traveller reported her luggage as missing after it did not arrive at her destination. She then listed it as lost or stolen. According to police, the bag contained more than US$1600 worth of items. Thanks to the Apple AirTag she'd attached to the bag, she knew it had been somewhere near Kathy Court in Mary Esther, Florida.

On August 9, another traveller also lodged a complaint that more than US$15,000 worth of jewellery and other items were stolen from his bag.

When officers went to Giovanni De Luca's home on August 10, they found the second passenger's missing items.

However, the first traveller's bag was nowhere to be found. De Luca claimed he had only taken the Apple AirTag from the first bag.

De Luca is facing two counts of grand theft.

When travellers flooded back to airports, lost luggage became a key issue due to airports' lack of ground staff and baggage handlers.

In response, the Apple tracking tags have become a popular accessory for travellers. Using Bluetooth technology, the tags sync with an Apple phone, which can then be used to track their location.

Many travellers have shared stories of using the device to track down their bags, sometimes even after being told by airport staff that their bags could not be found.

In the US, reports of mishandled baggage in May 2022 were almost double what they were the year previous, totalling over 237,000.

Meanwhile, luggage stacked up so much in Heathrow that a Delta plane was tasked with taking 1000 bags back to America.