A determined woman who left her AirPods in place while disembarking from a United Airlines plane tracked them down to an airport employee’s HOME after an employee told her she couldn’t retrieve them herself
- Alisabeth Hayden was told she couldn’t retrieve her AirPods after leaving them in her denim jacket on the back of a United Airlines plane
- A clerk retrieved the jacket, but when she went into the bag, the $250 gadgets were missing
- Hayden was able to track her down to the employee’s home using her geotracking capability
A woman who left her AirPods on a flight and was told she couldn’t retrieve them has revealed she tracked them down to an airport employee’s home.
Alisabeth Hayden claims the worker promised to bring back the expensive equipment – which was in her denim jacket – but didn’t do so.
The determined passenger tracked the device’s movements and pinpointed them to the worker’s home.
Hayden, from Washington state, was flying back on a United Airlines plane from Tokyo, where she was visiting her military husband, when the incident happened.
As she got off the plane, she noticed that her jacket was missing.
Alisabeth Hayden claims the United Airlines employee promised to bring her the expensive devices back, but he secretly stole them
“I realized before I even got off the plane,” she told CNN.
“I got off the plane third last, so I asked the flight attendant if I could get it.
“He said no – I was required by federal law to get off the plane and stand by where the strollers are being taken. I was tired, he said he would bring it to me, I said ok.’
He returned her jacket and boarded her next flight to Seattle, where she noticed the pockets were open and the AirPods were gone.
However, AirPods have a feature that allows users to track where they are from their phone.
Hayden tracked them to a United Cargo parked in an area of the airport where no passengers would be.
She watched the device move through several terminals and then to a residential address in San Mateo.
The address was later matched to that of a contractor employed by the airport who was working to load groceries onto the plane.
“I’m a hardworking person, and I’ve been tracking all the way from San Francisco to Seattle and taking screenshots all the time,” she said.
“I live an hour from Seattle and when I got home I was still taking screenshots.”
She also marked the AirPods as “lost” on the app, meaning anyone who used them would hear a message letting them know they were hers and repeating their phone number.
Meanwhile, she struggled with United to get the devices back but struggled.
She emailed every United Airlines executive she could find and repeatedly posted about the debacle on her Facebook page.
“I tried every avenue I could find and used every form of communication I could and got the same response, ‘I’m sorry this happened to you,'” she said.
Hayden tracked the Airpods and eventually discovered they were in the United Airlines worker’s home
Hayden eventually had the AirPods returned after she turned law enforcement on
She eventually called the police, who brought the employee in for questioning. He denied having the devices.
He later said he got them from one of the airport cleaners.
After 12 days of persecution, the devices were finally returned to her.
United told CNN the matter has been referred to law enforcement.
It added: “United Airlines holds our suppliers to the highest standards and we are working with local authorities to investigate this matter.”
The case is being processed by the San Francisco Airport Police Department, who will escalate the case to the San Mateo District Attorney’s Office.