Couple Used Apple AirTag to Track Luggage, Found It Was Donated to Charity

A newly married Canadian couple found out their luggage had been donated to a charity after a months-long search that involved the police, endless wrangling with Air Canada, and an AirTag.

Honeymoon returnees Nakita Rees and Tom Wilson, who documented their ordeal through TikTok updates(Opens in a new window), lost their luggage after being told to recheck it on a connecting flight in Montreal. As Business Insider reports(Opens in a new window), they found out their Apple AirTagged luggage was still in Montreal after landing in their home province of Ontario.

What followed was a months-long hunt that led them to find out their luggage had been donated to a charity by Air Canada, the airline they had flown with.

In a statement to CBC(Opens in a new window), Air Canada said: "This customer travelled late in the summer at a time when all air carriers in Canada were still recovering from the COVID-related, systemic disruption of the entire air transport industry. One consequence was an elevated rate of baggage delays."

After the couple filed a lost luggage report on Wilson’s bag, the Apple AirTag inside showed the bag was at a public storage facility just outside Toronto in Etobicoke, Rees said on TikTok(Opens in a new window).

This was after the bag had reportedly been driven down a highway from Quebec to the storage facility in Ontario. On its way there, the AirTag showed the bag had stopped at two homes, Rees added in a further TikTok(Opens in a new window).

After receiving compensation of $2,300, reportedly the legal maximum for lost luggage, which Rees said covered a third of the value of what was inside the luggage, the couple turned up at the storage facility and asked a manager at Toronto Pearson Airport for assistance, but he had never heard of the facility, Insider reports.

It was at this point that the police went to the facility and opened it up for the couple. The storage facility reportedly contained “floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall luggage.” It was through the police that the couple found out that their luggage had been donated to a charity, which allegedly used the storage facility, but whose name the couple is still doesn't know.

Rees announced their luggage had been returned on Jan. 23, via a TikTok update(Opens in a new window). This was after Air Canada had appointed a handler to look into their case, searched through 1,200 bags in the storage facility, and found it within 24 hours. The luggage was then delivered to their door, months after it had been reported missing. According to Rees, everything inside the bag was intact, including a bottle of wine.

Speaking to CBC, AirCanada said it worked hard to find the luggage: "In this particular case, the situation was compounded by the disconnection of the baggage tag at some point on the journey. Despite our best efforts, it was not possible for us to identify the bag's owner. It was designated as unclaimed, and we moved to compensate the customer."

PCMag reached Air Canada for comment but did not immediately receive a response.