A Miami family’s Christmas break trip took a detour when their luggage was taken, but they were able to retrieve their lost belongings because of technology.
Catherine Gavino stated, “I wanted justice,” to Queen City News on Tuesday.
The crime occurred at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, where Gavino and her family were passing through on their way from the Miami area to the Carolinas.
The family informed FOX 46 Charlotte that they couldn’t find one of their suitcases at baggage claim when they arrived in Charlotte on Friday afternoon. But with Catherine’s new Apple AirTag, the hunt was on for the pilfered bags.
According to Gavino, when she checked her phone, the AirTag concealed in her parents’ baggage indicated that it was traveling westward on Interstate 85, heading toward Gastonia.
After gathering the remaining luggage and grabbing their rental car, the Gavino family started to follow the AirTag to a neighborhood, though they said they couldn’t pinpoint the precise area.
Gavino claimed that AirTag had eventually stopped showing its location. The Gavino family called off the hunt, but on Christmas Day they decided to give it another go in the hopes of finding more.
Gavino checked her AirTag location again after returning family members to the airport, and this time it showed the location of a residence in Gastonia.
After notifying the police, Gavino claims that she discovered the house, their missing luggage, and another victim’s suitcase that had been taken from the airport.
Gavino said to Queen City News that she was notified by Gastonia police that “another person contacted with the same problem. They also possessed an AirTag.”
To their dismay, practically everything had disappeared when her family’s luggage was found.
“Who knows, police think they might have sold the clothes for money,” Catherine clarified. “I was saddened that this was happening to my parents, who were visiting the mountains to enjoy the scenery of North Carolina, which gave me even more motivation to pursue them. Without this AirTag, I never would have discovered them.”
The defendant was taken into custody on a $10,000 bond after being charged with many theft offenses, including one involving drugs, according to police records.
A request for comment from Fox News Digital was not immediately answered by the Gastonia Police Department.