A young man who worked as an airline subcontractor decided to help himself to the passenger baggage he was entrusted to handle. Only the witless teenager neglected to find that one suitcase he stole had an Apple AirTag in it, leading police right to his house.

Police at Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)  in Florida began an investigation after two passengers reported missing checked baggage. The first incident occurred in July 2022. The first passenger reported that her baggage never arrived and its contents contained $1,600. But she had placed an AirTag in her luggage and her luggage popped up at a residential address in Mary Esther, a small city of 3,500 on the Florida Panhandle.

Just days ago, another passenger reported that over $15,000 worth of jewelry was removed from her checked bag.  The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office thought there might be a link between the two cases and used an airport employee database to pull up all the employees who lived on or around the street in Mary Esther where the AirTag showed the luggage.

There was only one match: 19-year-old Giovanni De Luca, who works as an “airline subcontractor” at VPS. VPS is served by Allegiant, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Southwest Airlines. Police knocked on De Luca’s door and he let them in, where they found the missing jewelry.

De Luca confessed to stealing the other bag, though had already purportedly disposed of its contents, and was arrested. He faces two charges of grand theft.

The incident demonstrates the growing importance of tracking devices like Apple AirTags in helping law enforcement to track down your missing items. Thieves are often not all that clever and this dullard apparently did not check the bag for AirTags before taking it home. I now travel with an AirTag in each of my bags and encourage you to do the same.

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

Indeed he is a dullard and it’s good that he was located thanks to AirTags. But $15,000 of jewelry in checked luggage? Really? And this summer in particular, with all its baggage chaos? There may be more than one dullard involved in this story.

I never check a bag without AirTags. They are very helpful to show the whereabouts of your luggage. Just saw at AMS the mountains of lost luggage sitting at the airport which is an embarrassment for any airport.

Now, who is stupid enough to have $15,000 worth of jewelry in a checked bag?

I thought air tags had a limited range of a few meters ?

No, they’re part of a mesh network of Apple devices. This means someone had an iPhone/iPad nearby at some point.

VPS is my home airport. I’ve long felt that Destin’s vacation crowd skewed toward folks who have more money than imagination or common sense so I’m not surprised at all to hear of someone leaving $15K of jewelry in their checked bags.

And given someone with a pulse and a reasonably pleasant demeanor can make 2-3 times what a contract airport baggage handler can make here working fewer hours at any number of local restaurants, the airport will pretty much hire anyone who has a background check come back clean at time of hire.

I’ve also just ordered some AirTags for my household.

I’m not condoning theft. De Luca was a bad actor and he deserved his punishment. HOWEVER, he was dumb to just let the police voluntarily come in to his house. No warrant… GTFO!

In the meantime he might have found some stupid politicians to defend him before ascertaining all the facts. Seems to be happening in Florida lately.

This notion that police can’t search you if you don’t agree probably isn’t going to work. The police know the airtag is in there, they have probable cause, and they can call into the warrant to a judge. If the guy leaves, they can follow him and if he tries to ditch the tag, he’ll be charged with tampering with evidence.

Sure, if he’s guilty as hell he may as well make the police have to fill out the paperwork if only in the hopes they make a stupid mistake.

I routinely put AirTags on all of the dullards I encounter when traveling.

This is more comprehensive, though more effort-intensive, than placing the AirTags in my bags. However, this method protects me against a variety of travel related problems.

Now that’s a good looking thief! 😛

Weren’t there security cameras at the VPS airport showing the employee taking the luggage out of the building and in his car?

So, I don’t have any Apple devices, only Android for me. Do they have an alternate tracking device?

That’s the most compelling reason to use air tags! I never thought much of them until now.

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