When a Florida woman’s pink hard-shell roller bag didn’t show up at the baggage carousel after her flight was canceled, she panicked.
Then she checked the location-tracking feature of the Apple Watch she had packed inside. It was pinging from an address about six miles north of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, where she had checked her bag, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
The woman went to the address. And although she didn’t find her bag or anyone at the house, she took photos and videos of luggage scattered outside, the Sheriff’s Office said in an affidavit.
That touched off an investigation that led to the arrest in March of a man who worked at the airport and lived at the address. He was charged with grand theft after the Sheriff’s Office said that surveillance video showed him rummaging through her bag at the airport. The office said he had stolen more than $5,000 worth of her belongings, including her Apple Watch, iPad, MacBook, jewelry, clothes and toiletries.
The woman, Paola Garcia, was not identified in court documents, but she spoke this week to WPLG, a Florida television station, about her decision to go to the man’s address after Spirit Airlines canceled her flight on March 3.
Ms. Garcia, a college student, could not be reached for comment on Friday, but she said in the interview with WPLG that Spirit had told her it would deliver her bag to her home. When she saw the address, she wondered, “How can Spirit deliver my suitcase there?”
