AirTag helps teen find $12,000 bike across the Atlantic

Sixteen-year-old Gray Barnett is the U.S. national time trial champion for cycling in his age group. Competing at the national level for several years, and part of the EF Pro Cycling team’s junior development program, he travels regularly with his bike.

But on his way back from his last victory with his team in Lyon, France, his bike didn’t make it with him to his final destination. Luckily he had a tracking device, an Apple AirTag, on the bike case that helped him recover his racing equipment, per CNN.

“A mom’s intuition,” Luke Barnett, Gray’s father, told CNN.

Thanks to his AirTag, Gray realized that his bike had stayed in the Brussels Airport, where Gray had a connecting flight, per Insider.

“The bike is worth $12,000 — it’s a team bike, but it’s the principle, and it was specific for him, with measurements for his riding style,” Luke Barnett told CNN. “Also, he needs it to train — he has an event in Vermont in a couple of weeks.”

Trying to get the bike back home

When the family contacted United Airlines about the bike, according to Barnett, the airline said, “Well, based on our records, Brussels Airlines have the bag and need to give it to us.”

Barnett told CNN that when he contacted Brussel Airlines, the airline said, “‘United booked your ticket, we’re not going to talk to you.’”

The lack of progress made Gray tell his story on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and to even file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Transportation, per CNN. Still, he said, nothing had been done to locate and send the bike back to Gray.

“I was saying, ‘I just needed someone to care enough to take 15 minutes to walk over and get the bag,’” Barnett told CNN.

How Gray got his bike back

After contacting both airlines multiple times, they decided to contact the Brussels Airport again. At first, they got the standard answers, but after many tries and talking to a few different people, they got a response from Ella Dollinschi, a customer care agent at Brussels Airport, per Insider.

“We went to the baggage reclaim for you but could not find your baggage. In the file is indicated a bike bag. Could you please describe the baggage or maybe you have a picture of it?” Dollinschi wrote.

Barnett sent Dollinschi the location of his bike according to the AirTag and two photos of his bike bag. Less than an hour later, Dollinschi found Gray’s bag and emailed him, saying the bag would be sent to him and giving him information about its flight and how to get it back, per CNN.

According to CNN, as soon as Gray received Dollinschi’s email, he checked the AirTag device and his bike was in transit.

“I think it’s important to help our passengers, even if it is beyond my skills and duties. It wasn’t that much of an effort to go looking for the bag in the stock of the handlers. And in general, I think it’s important to help other people from a humane perspective,” Dollinschi told CNN.