Airtags a good idea to foil luggage theft

Whether you check your luggage at check-in or at the gate, the reality is you are now separated from your luggage. The latter, usually means the bag will be on the plane with you, the former, well most of the time the bag gets on the plane. Keep in mind there is a reason every baggage carousel has an airline representative there, as bags do become separated from travelers. Yet sometimes, thankfully not often, the bag may arrive but is stolen by staff or a criminal waiting at the baggage carousel.

In both instances the AirTag comes in handy to help you keep an eye on your luggage.

Here’s an example.

Theft

Many of the media outlets carried the story of Giovanni de Luca, 19, who was charged with multiple counts of grand theft. His crime, heisting luggage at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport. What he wasn’t counting on is that multiple victims had secreted into their luggage AirTags.

According to NBC News, the Okaloosa County Sherriff’s office received a complaint that her luggage had been stolen and items inside were worth approximately $1600. The AirTag directed investigators to the de Luca’s residence. When they got to the residence, the recovered the AirTag used by the victim, but not the luggage. They did recover luggage of a separate individual who claimed $15000 worth of jewelry was within his suitcase.

While we can see the immediate value in the event your luggage is stolen, what if it is lost. Will it help you find it? You bet it will. The AirTags will permit you to track the luggage as it moves from airport to airport. The bottom line, AirTags help you reunite with that which is lost, their utility is becoming more ubiquitous and mainstream.

We do, however, have to caution travelers to the more nefarious uses of AirTags. Travelers by nature are pushed to restaurants, pubs and bars for dinner and libation. It is the nature of travel. There have been numerous reports of an AirTag being dropped into an unsuspecting target’s coat or purse. This gives the miscreant a means to follow at a safe distance and track a victim/potential victim to their residence or hotel.

See this piece I crafted for CSO Online, “Apple AirTag and other tagging devices add to CISO worries.” For this reason, those who use Apple devices may wish to be mindful if they receive a “Unknown Accessory Detected” alert that they maybe, unsuspectingly, carrying an AirTag dropped on them.