This is why travelers should always put an AirTag in their suitcase before flying
The Apple AirTag item tracker has been used as Apple expected it would and has helped consumers find things that they tagged which went missing. However, the product also has something of a dark side as it has been used to stalk and terrorize people, and was even used by a car thief to keep track of certain vehicles that he wanted to steal.
But there are good stories as well. For example, an AirTag helped cops nab a subcontractor working at Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport who stole a couple of suitcases with over $16,000 of valuables inside. In this case, an AirTag had been placed inside one of the suitcases and it led to the arrest of the hapless thief.
Thanks to a tweet, we can tell you that the latest AirTag story also involves luggage and an AirTag that was planted inside it. But the heavy of this story is not a criminal but an airline by the name of Air Canada. Flying to Toronto from Montreal on a connecting flight after honeymooning in Greece, Nakita Rees did find her bag on the carousel; her husband did not. So while the couple filed a missing bag report with the airline, they had the foresight to have placed an AirTag tracker in each of their bags.
Travelers should put an AirTag item tracker in each bag before boarding their flight
Over the ensuing four weeks, the tracker revealed that the husband's bag was in Montreal leaving them frustrated, but not upset. They thought that they caught a break when the AirTag subsequently revealed some movement as the suitcase was being shipped to Etobicoke. At this point, the couple said that they were "pumped" thinking that the bag was heading to a storage facility from where it could be retrieved.
If anyone is missing luggage from an @AirCanada you MUST watch this!!!! Your bags may have been donated to a charity & may be being held in #Montreal or #Toronto#baggageclaim#lostluggage
— Lyndsay Jenkinson (@Lyndsay_J) January 21, 2023
Check out nakitarees's video! #TikTokhttps://t.co/66uqLdbWwL
The AirTag eventually showed that the suitcase was in some type of storage facility where, said Rees, "it sat there for a month, two months, three months. No movement, nothing from Air Canada." After calling Air Canada and getting nowhere, the couple decided to take matters into their own hands. So they headed to the storage facility and Rees said that when they arrived her husband used a flashlight to look through different storage rooms until he found one piled up with luggage.
Not sure what they were looking at, the couple rang the police and were stunned to learn what had happened to their bag. "Our luggage was donated to a charity on behalf of Air Canada because they deemed it lost even though we were tracking our luggage for the last four months,” Rees said.
Found in some of the missing bags were iPhones, iPads, and more AirTags
In the storage facility, the cops found over 500 bags with some containing iPhone handsets, iPad tablets, laptops, and yes, even more AirTag trackers. Like millions of others, Rees took to TikTok to publicize her story. "They said they could hear AirTags beeping," Rees said. "Cops are unimpressed (with) how Air Canada is handling this in that they are taking possession and ownership of our property and deciding what needs to be done with it and donating it."
Air Canada did reimburse the newly married couple for a quarter of the value of the three weeks' worth of clothing that was wrongly donated to charity by the airline. It doesn't seem fair, does it? But Rees says that the airlines will continue to get away with doing things like this unless customers speak up. "Because they will not do anything and they will not change until enough people start spreading the word, we need this to be huge because this is wrong and this is criminal. And this is my property that was donated without my consent and without my knowing."
As for the Apple AirTag, this time it was cast as the good guy, the tool that helped break the case. Perhaps Apple TV+ will soon stream a show called AirTag PI.
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