Woman Tracks Stolen Luggage Like a Detective, It Was Found At Airport Store Worker's Home

Spirit Airlines passenger managed to track down her stolen luggage at a now-former retail airport employee’s house. Paola Garcia told Local10 that she used one of her missing items in the luggage and tracked down a house in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where Junior Bazile, 29, resided. Bazile has since been arrested and charged with grand theft in the third degree, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Tracking Down Her Luggage John Wick Style

Garcia was slated to leave the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on a Spirit Airlines flight on March 3. However, the airline canceled the fight and all passengers were told to collect their checked-in luggage from the baggage belt 4, as per the affidavit.

Garcia told CNN affiliate WPLG in Miami that she usually takes her pink suitcase onboard, but she was told she had to check it this time. She waited at least two hours for her pink roller bag/suitcase, at the belt, but it never arrived. The baggage allegedly contained an Apple MacBook, iPad, Apple Watch, some jewelry, high-end women’s clothing, and toiletries.

When her luggage didn’t arrive, she contacted Spirit Airlines which told her that her luggage had been sent to her house. However, the luggage didn’t come to her home either. Fed up with the delay, Garcia decided to find her bag using her electronic tracker.

She pinged the electronic items inside the bag to try and locate them, which gave the location and an address in Fort Lauderdale, the affidavit said.

Caught Red-Handed

As per the CNN report, Garcia went down to the tracked address to retrieve her things. However, she failed to contact anyone inside the home. She took pictures and videos of the place where she saw “several pieces of luggage in the front of the home,” which didn’t belong to her.

She then dialed 911, she said in the WPLG interview. “The first thing I remember the police told me is: ‘What are you doing here? This is so dangerous for you to be here, “ she recalled them saying.

Following her complaint, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office searched the address within the airport’s employee databases and found that Bazile reportedly lived there. He was listed to be working at Paradies Lagardère Travel Retail store at the airport. He was working on the day of the theft, as per the affidavit.

Furthermore, the police contacted the store’s loss prevention manager who provided the detective with internal CCTV footage from the day of the incident. In the footage, Bazile could be seen entering the store’s storage room with a pink shell roller bag, which matched the description of the stolen bag.

In the video, Bazile was seen rummaging through the luggage. He then appeared to take the MacBook and some other smaller items out of the luggage and put them in other bags. A WPLG video showed the man holding a plastic bag containing a pink suitcase and holding a laptop.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office confirmed to PEOPLE that Bazile was arrested on March 8 and charged with grand theft in the third degree. As per the arrest warrant, obtained by the publication, the stolen items included an Apple MacBook, iPad, Apple Watch, jewelry, and more along with the suitcase.

The accused has pleaded not guilty and posted a $30,000 bond. He is next set to appear in court on August 23, as per the court records.