During travel, sometimes people forget their valuables on trains or flights. They might not be able to locate their lost valuable later. But with the advancement of technology, it is now possible to locate valuables like electronic gadgets. A woman in US' Washington state tracked down her lost Apple AirPods to an airport worker's home two weeks after she left them behind on a flight.
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Alisabeth Hayden lost her earphones when she was flying back from Tokyo, where she had been visiting her husband, earlier this month. After she doboarded the plane at San Francisco, Hayden realised she had left her jacket behind and her Airpods too, CNN (article beyond paywall) reported.
"I realised before I was even off the plane. I was the third from last off the plane, so I asked the flight attendant if I could go and get it. He said no - I was required by federal law to get off the plane and stand beside it, where the strollers are brought to. I was tired, he said he'd bring it to me, I said OK," she told CNN.
The flight's crew member brought her the jacket and she subsequently boarded her next flight to Seattle. Hayden recalled that a child was screaming next to her so he thought to use her AirPods. "A child was screaming next to me and I thought, at least I have my AirPods", she said. But, when Hayden searched her jacket, she found that her AirPods were missing, the report added.
{{/usCountry}}The flight's crew member brought her the jacket and she subsequently boarded her next flight to Seattle. Hayden recalled that a child was screaming next to her so he thought to use her AirPods. "A child was screaming next to me and I thought, at least I have my AirPods", she said. But, when Hayden searched her jacket, she found that her AirPods were missing, the report added.
{{/usCountry}}As the flight had already taken off to Seattle, Hayden used inflight Wi-Fi to track the earphones using the Apple's "Find My" app, which is used to track Apple devices. The AirPods were traced to a cargo terminal at San Francisco Airport. The location was constantly moving. It moved to different locations at various terminals and then on Highway 101 before it ended up on an address in the Bay Area, where it lay for three days, the report added.
Hayden eventually marked her AirPods as "lost" on the app, pinging an alert and her number to the person who had them. She escalated the matter at the San Mateo police which was also working at the airport. The police traced the address the AirPods were pinging from to an airport contractor working to load food onto aircraft.
The airport worker finally revealed that the AirPods were being given to him be a cleaning staff member. The earphones were finally returned to Hayden 12 days later in a bad condition.
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United Airlines offered $271.91 in "expenses" (to buy a new pair) plus 5,000 miles as an apology to Hayden. The matter is now being handed over to San Francisco Airport Police Department, which would submit the case to the San Mateo District Attorney's office, the report further added.