- Florida authorities have charged an airline worker with theft after over $16,000 of luggage went missing.
- The lost luggage was tracked down to his house because one of the bags had an Apple AirTag in it.
- The man named as, Giovanni De Luca, was arrested and currently faces two counts of grand theft.
A sheriff's office in Florida says that an airline subcontractor has been charged with theft after over $16,000 of luggage went missing from passengers.
Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office said that the man, named as Giovanni De Luca, was arrested on August 10 in connection with items stolen from luggage at Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport in northwest Florida. He currently faces two counts of grand theft.
In July, one traveler reported that her luggage, which she said was worth more than $1,600, never arrived at her destination, the sheriff's office said.
Another traveler said that more than $15,000 dollars of items including jewelry had been taken from his luggage on August 9, per the sheriff's office.
The first alleged victim said an Apple Airtag — a small tracking device that many passengers are using to track their luggage amid a summer of travel chaos — showed that her bag was last located in a street in Okaloosa County around 11 miles from the airport, per the sheriff's office's report.
The sheriff's office said that it was able to find out which airport employees lived near the Airtag's last location. This led officers to De Luca, at whose house they found the items reported missing on August 9, the sheriff's office said.
Though the belongings from the bag that went missing in July have not been recovered, De Luca admitted that he had rummaged through the suitcase and removed an Apple Airtag, the sheriff's office said.
The airport, which served around 265,000 passengers in July, has direct domestic flights operated by Allegiant, American, Delta, Southwest, and United.
The airport didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside of normal working hours.