Apple tracker snitches on airport worker after items go missing from suitcases

A small Apple tracker has helped many travelers with their misplaced luggage and has now helped the police arrest an airport worker.

Named AirTag, the tracker developed by Apple (but which also has similar competitors from other brands) works from Bluetooth.

When being close to a device with active Bluetooth, something very common in the era when headphones are no longer wired and smart watches dominate the wrists, the device shares its location, which is sent to the user.

With that, and using little battery (the same battery of simple wristwatches and that lasts for more than a year), these trackers are perfect for those who travel, especially in these recent times of European chaos in which the lack of employees has generated many losses. of luggage.

And that’s what an American traveler did when he left his hometown to head to Fort Walton, on Florida’s west coast, in the Gulf of Mexico region. Upon arriving at his destination, he noticed that several things were missing from his suitcase. In all, US$ 1,600 (R$ 8,282) in goods that had disappeared, and among them the AirTag, which pointed to a house in the town of Mary Esther, next to Fort Walton.

The disappearance reported above was recorded last month, however, on the 9th of this month, another traveler claimed that US$ 15,000 (R$ 77,700) in jewelry had disappeared from her suitcase, and the police concluded that they had something strange happening at the airport.

Using the AirTag location data, Okaloosa County Police took a list of employees at Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (which shares a runway with the large U.S. Air Force base Eglin) and saw who lived in Mary Esther on the court pointed to by the device, according to NBC News.

The list indicated only the name of one employee: Giovanni De Luca, 19, who was an outsourced worker for a handling company, responsible for loading and unloading the plane’s luggage.

The police went to his house, and found all the belongings in the woman’s suitcase, including all the jewelry. Giovanni admitted to the crimes, but said he got rid of the AirTag and the stolen goods from the first traveler last month.

He was arrested on two counts (Grand Theft), each of which carries between 5 and 30 years in prison, plus a fine. It was not informed which airlines the young man was working for, or whether they compensated passengers for the losses.