Tracker shows B.C. man's missing AirPods keep coming back to Seattle airport

When the executive director of the South Vancouver Community Policing centre left his Apple AirPods on an Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Seattle this past weekend, he turned on his iPhone’s “Find My” feature to track where the lost wireless earbuds could be.

“It turns out they were in the airport, and I got some hope. And as the weekend went on, I checked and they had gone to someone’s home,” said Mauro Francis.

That home was 40 minutes away from Sea-Tac Airport in Sumner, Wash.

Francis figured a fellow passenger had picked them up and he’d never see them again. But then he tracked the AirPods back and forth between that home and Sea-Tac three more times.

“I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I think it’s quite safe to say that it’s most likely an airport employee,” said Francis.

In an emailed statement to CTV News, Air Canada said it has a third party contracted handler at Sea-Tac airport and “Contracted parties are expected to turn in items found. Our U.S. airports team is following up with the station on this matter.”

Francis has filed a missing item report with the airline and the airport. “I think if it’s an employee, it’s more of an internal matter for them. I do think it should be addressed,” he said.

In the meantime, Francis has activated “lost mode” on the Airpods, so if an Apple user has picked them up, they would get a message on their device saying the earbuds have been lost, and asking the finder to contact him. That hasn’t happened.

Mike Agerbo, a tech expert with the Vancouver-produced TV show “Get Connected,” says while AirPods are trackable like other Apple devices, they’re missing a key loss prevention feature that iPhones and laptops have built in.

“Unfortunately, you’re not able to lock them down, so people if they do find them are able to still use them as bluetooth earbuds,” said Agerbo. And tracking them doesn’t do much good.

“You don't have much recourse. You know, typically the cops aren’t able to do anything, and I would not recommend going and confronting someone trying to find your lost AirPods or iPhone,” said Agerbo.

Francis agrees. While he has tracked down where the person who has his AirPods lives, and likely where he or she works, he won’t be confronting them.

“At the South Vancouver Community Policing Centre, we actually act as a retrieval place, we deal with a lot of lost and found items, and we always recommend our residents don’t go pursue them themselves,” said Francis, adding “It’s not the safe thing to do.”

Instead, he will keep hoping, and tracking the AirPods on his phone.

“We will see where they go, we’ll see what happens. On the off chance they’re able to get in touch with the employee and retrieve them, that would be great,” Francis said. “But I have kind of moved on, it’s far from home now.”

Agerbo says Francis can watch his AirPods from afar, but shouldn’t expect to see them in person again.

“I guess there’s entertainment value seeing your Apple device going from place to place,” he said. “But other than, that you’re kind of out of luck.”