Woman who left her AirPods on a flight tracked them down to an airport worker’s HOME

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 had promised to bring back the expensive gadgets – which were in her denim jacket – but failed to do so.

The determined passenger kept track of the device’s movements and located them down to the worker’s house.

Hayden, from Washington state, was flying back from Tokyo on a United Airlines plane where she was visiting her military husband when the incident happened.

As she was vacating the plane, she noticed her jacket was missing.

Alisabeth Hayden claims the United Airlines worker had promised to bring the expensive gadgets back to her but he secretly swiped them

‘I realized before I was even off the plane,’ she told CNN. 

‘I was the third from last off the plane, so I asked the flight attendant if I could go and get it. 

‘He said no – I was required by federal law to get off the plane and stand beside it, where the strollers are brought to. I was tired, he said he’d bring it to me, I said OK.’

He brought her back the jacket and boarded her next flight to Seattle at which point she realized the pockets had been opened and the AirPods were gone. 

But AirPods have a feature which can allow users to track them from their phone where they are. 

Hayden tracked them down to a ‘United Cargo’ which sat in an area of the airport where passengers would not be. 

She watched as the device moved through several terminals then to a residential address in San Mateo.

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The address was later matched to that of a contractor employed by the airport working to load food onto the aircraft. 

‘I’m a diligent person, and I tracked the whole way from San Francisco to Seattle, taking screenshots the entire time,’ she said. 

‘I live an hour from Seattle, and once I got home, I was still taking screenshots.’

She also marked the AirPods as ‘lost’ on the app meaning anybody who used them would hear a message telling them they were hers and repeating her phone number.

In the meantime she fought with United to get the gadgets back but struggled.

She emailed every United Airlines executive she could find and posted repeatedly about the debacle on their Facebook page.    

‘I hit every avenue I could find, and used every possible form of communication, and got the same response: ‘I’m sorry that happened to you,’” she said.

Hayden kept track of the airpods, eventually discovering they were at the United Airlines worker’s home

Hayden eventually had the AirPods returned to her after involving law enforcement

She eventually involved the police who brought the employee in for questioning. He denied having the gadgets. 

He later said he had been given them by one of the airport cleaners. 

After 12 days of chasing, the devices were eventually returned to her.

United told CNN the matter had been handed over to law enforcement.

It added: ‘United Airlines holds our vendors to the highest standards and we are working with local authorities in their investigation of this matter.’

The case is being handled by the San Francisco Airport Police Department which will submit the case to the San Mateo District Attorney’s office.