A passenger forgets her Airpods on the plane and follows them to the house of an airport worker

It can happen to anyone. Disembarking from her Tokyo-San Francisco in early March, Alisabeth Hayden forgot her jacket with her headphones on the plane. She never imagined that she would go on a two-week search to finally find them at the home of an airport employee, as CNN reports.

Realizing immediately that she had been forgotten when she was one of the last people to leave the cabin, the American tried to turn around to retrieve her property herself. But she is told that a federal law requires her to leave the plane. A flight attendant finally returns her jacket and she boards her next flight without thinking. Before she realizes, already in the air, that hers Airpods, a precious means of communication with her husband deployed in the military, are no longer in her pocket.

two week hunt

Very quickly, the unfortunate passenger uses the “Locate” app, which tracks Apple devices, and realizes that her Airpods are moving and probably stolen. She watches them change positions at the San Francisco airport, before stopping in a nearby residential area.

Nothing works: contact the airline, United Airlines, and activate the “lost” mode of your headphones so that they signal with a sound message to whoever puts them on that they are yours, telling them your phone number. Unsuccessfully.

In her misfortune, the American is helped by a San Mateo police detective, who also works at the airport, who manages to link her location with the address of an employee of the site.

The airline will later claim in an email that it is “not a United employee but a vendor.” After denying it, the suspect finally accuses an employee in charge of cleaning the airport of having given it to him, who in turn denies any involvement. An investigation should be opened according to the San Francisco airport police.

But the result is there: even in bad shape, the passenger got her hands on her headphones after two weeks. She was compensated for her setbacks with approximately 272 dollars (the equivalent of 250 euros), 5,000 miles for her next flights and an apology from the company.