CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WJZY) — The Gavino family turned their vacation to the North Carolina mountains into a sleuth mission to find their stolen luggage.

That hunt led to the discovery of multiple stolen suitcases in Gastonia.   

“I wanted justice,” Catherine Gavino told Nexstar’s WJZY in an exclusive interview Tuesday afternoon. Gavino and her family are originally from the Miami area but had their sights set on spending Christmas in the Carolinas.

The family landed at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on Friday afternoon. But their vacation was delayed when they were unable to locate one of their bags in baggage claim.   

Gavino pulled up her phone to check the location of her newly purchased AirTag, which she placed in her parents’ luggage after getting the idea from a YouTube video that morning. In fact, she said she had seen several influencers touting the practice.

“It was to help find luggage if it was lost, but I never thought it’d get stolen,” she said.

But the luggage was indeed stolen, according to a Gastonia Police Department police report.

When Gavino pulled up her phone, the AirTag hidden inside her mother and father’s luggage showed it was on Interstate 85 and on its way west toward Gastonia.   

The Gavino family quickly rented their vehicles and began to follow the AirTag to a neighborhood, but were unable to find the exact location. The AirTag, according to Gavino, stopped displaying its location after a center point. That meant the Friday afternoon search was called off.   

“Throughout the entire trip it kept showing up around Gastonia, and South Carolina,” she explained.

The suitcase fortunately didn’t contain any sentimental items, but rather clothes that her mother and father specifically bought for their holiday trip. All had to be replaced.

On Christmas Day, Gavino dropped off two family members at the airport and decided to check her AirTag location one last time. This time, it was showing up at a house on McGuire Street in Gastonia.

“I told my dad … ‘Look, it’s only 20 minutes, let’s swing by,’” she said.

Gavino not only found the house but saw the AirTag was still at the location. She contacted police, who arrived and notified the homeowners of the situation.

Inside, they found the family’s suitcase and the suitcase of another victim who had their luggage stolen from the airport.

Gavino told WJZY that Gastonia Police informed her “someone else called with the same issue. And they had an AirTag.”

Unfortunately for her family, there was not much left inside the suitcase.   

“Police believe they may have sold the clothes for money, who knows,” Gavino explained. “These are my parents, coming to the mountains for a North Carolina view, so for this to happen made me sad, which was all the more reason to go after them … I wouldn’t have found them without this.”  

The suspect in this case was arrested and charged with multiple theft crimes, including a drug charge. That person is being held on a $10,000 bond. It’s unclear how or when the suspect obtained the luggage.

Apple AirTags have proved useful for numerous travelers in recent years. A Florida airport employee was arrested for allegedly stealing over $16,000 in items from travelers’ luggage — and police said the use of an AirTag aided in implicating the 19-year-old worker. Another woman used an AirTag to track a missing bag that United Airlines had promised to deliver to her, only to find it at an apartment complex after it made a mysterious journey to a McDonald’s and shopping center.