When Paola Garcia was forced to check her bag on Spirit Airlines, she had a hunch it would not end well. But never did she dream the contents of her bag would be stolen…especially by an airport worker. But using the “Find My” location feature on her Apple devices, she tracked down her missing luggage to a Fort Lauderdale home, leading to an arrest and circus-like antics from the thief’s mother.
After Spirit Airlines Flight, Florida Woman Finds Her Bag Full Of Apple Devices Stolen…Then Tracks It Down To The House Of Airport Employee
Garcia was flying home to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) on Spirit Airlines and was told her carry-on bag was too large. She chose to check it and failed to pull out her electronic devices from the bag, including an Apple MacBook, an Apple iPad, and ad two Apple Watches. Upon arrival at FLL, she waited two hours for her bag to show up, but it never did.
Spirit Airlines told her that it had arrived in FLL and once located, would be delivered to her home.
But using the tracking features embedded into these devices, she noticed her items were not at the airport, but at home in a residential area of Fort Lauderdale.
So she went there herself…after all, she had an exam and needed her computer. Why?
“Because I said how can Spirit deliver my suitcase there…I needed my computer! I had a test that day.”
When she arrived at the house on 1017 NW 11th Court, she found the yard strewn with luggage. She called the police, who came out and admonished her for putting her own safety at risk by trying to get her electronic items back herself.
The police found that the culprit, 29-year-old Junior Bazile was not only an airport employee, but had worked on the day that Garcia’s luggage was stolen. Brazile had already disposed of the items, but security camera footage clearly implicated him: he had taken the bag and then taken the contents out of the bag.
He was arrested and charged with grand theft (since the value of the goods stolen exceeded $750) and faces up to 30 years in prison plus a large fine. I think 10 lashes, Singapore-style, would be more appropriate, but that’s just me…
Meanwhile, local media interviewed Brazile’s mother, who hilariously denied any wrongdoing then attacked Jeff Weinsier of Local 10 News, then lied that he had attacked her first (everything was captured on video).
Lessons Learned
We can draw three lessons from what happened.
- Crime doesn’t pay – in this day and age, expect your electronic devices to be tracked. You’ve got to be very smart to disable the location-finding feature.
- Don’t check your bag if it has valuables in it – I realize that Garcia’s bag was too big to be a personal item and that Spirit charges more for a cabin carry-on bag than a checked bag, but you simply cannot leave valuables inside your checked bag…it is foolish.
- You can play detective, but don’t play police officer – Garcia could have been harmed and should not have gone to the Fort Lauderdale house alone. I do admire her grit, but it is not worthwhile.
Spirit Airlines has compensated Garcia for the contents of her bag:
“We issued a reimbursement check to the guest as a courtesy, even though we are not currently aware of any evidence that any Spirit employee was involved. We take any allegation of this nature seriously, and we are investigating.”
Side note: that’s absurd. The bag was under Spirit’s control and therefore Spirit had a legal obligation to make things right…this was not a courtesy.
CONCLUSION
All’s well that ends well in this case, but I’m very happy Garcia avoided harm despite her bold move to search for her stolen items herself. This case, if you’ll pardon the pun, is a reminder that you are foolish to check electronic devices (or jewelry or anything of value) on a commercial flight.
images: Broward County Sheriff’s Office
Good for her . Superwoman .
And , the airport had to know what was going on with their employee . How could they not ?
You can play detective, but don’t play police officer – Garcia could have harmed and should nog have gone to the Fort Lauderdale house by herself. I do admire her grit, but it is not worthwhile.
Typo
Fixed. Thanks.
Spirit also thought it would be cheaper to just compensate the victim instead of going to a losing lawsuit.
Also, events like these make Apple Tags a great investment when travelling in general. A couple of months ago, I was going on JFK-ICN with a two day layover for meetings, then ICN-SIN on KE in F as I was dispatched in SIN for work for the past couple of months before coming back home two weeks ago. However, despite being in F, KE somehow lost track of my checked bags at JFK, but having my Apple Tags helped them find them and get them to me by the time I landed in SIN. Also, they gave me cash vouchers to buy clothes even though I did have my carry-on and future upgrade vouchers from J->F as an apology for the inconvenience.
Are those upgrade vouchers transferable?! 😉
I wish. I don’t think I’ll have any use over the course of the rest of the year, so they would have been yours haha.
Mommy Bazile deserves 20 lashes. Trying to set someone up for assault is equally as despicable as the thieving son. This is a case of the apple not falling far from the tree.
“ When she arrived at the house on 1017 NW 11th Court, she found the yard strewn with luggage”
So this wasn’t the first time he did this. Hopefully he gets time and isn’t allowed to plea it out for probation and a fine but even in Florida we still have some liberal judges, especially in that area.
I don’t think that anyone would disagree that this should result in jail time. Still, considering it’s a non-violent crime, the person isn’t quite public enemy #1 and having to house and feed someone for decades for something like that probably isn’t a good return on investment for the taxpayer money spent on the deterrent.
By liberal, you mean honest? Yes, they still have those. Juan Merchan comes to mind.
When we talk about criminals? Yeah, he does come to mind. The guy who blatantly violated the “no political donations rule” by supporting Biden’s campaign financially? Whose daughter worked for the senile grandpa currently residing in the White House? Who couldn’t handle those affairs being highlighted so he put a gag order on the defendant? Yeah, an epitome of “honesty”, the Democratic way.
This ‘don’t check valuables in’ advice is sensible but it can also be rather unrealistic. My last suitcase had a RRP in excess of €500 (it was a Thule and turned out to be absolutely useless – I had bought it deeply discounted and managed to get it exchanged for a gift card after it started decomposing on its second trip, so I haven’t been traumatised by the experience), and two pairs of Goodyear-welted men’s shoes can easily cost as much on top. And don’t get me started on the haute parfumerie stuff. I am not into luxury designer brands, but those who are could be carrying $5k worth of stuff on a week-long trip. What’s the current Montréal maximum? About a third of that?
I think that the only realistic piece of advice is to avoid checking in electronics, not because they are valuable as such, but because they are more desirable to aspiring thieves.
His mother Donna isn’t looking so good these days from that video. She definitely went downhill after providing Hillary with the debate topics in 2016 and getting fired by CNN.
Probably true – It wasn’t a Spirit employee, but a contractor instead who allegedly stole the luggage. Spirit could distance themselves from the crime?
Why didn’t she have the tracking app on while on the airport to ascertain the luggage was leaving the grounds?
She probably did not suspect anything yet.
I think this is a cultural problem.
10 lashes… too soft Matthew
No less than 50 for this offense! The rub salt in the wounds to make sure it does not become septic, but also to increase the pain
Did Paola Garcia do ok on her exam or was that also collateral damage to Spirit’s lack of proper security for luggage?
Spirit Airlines and Miami. But of course.