Delta passenger claims cleaning crew stole his laptop

The passenger used Apple’s Find My iPhone app to track down his laptop to a nearby address where, police discovered, an employee who cleaned the airplane cabin lived. (iStock)

A Delta Air Lines passenger from Atlanta claims that his laptop was stolen by cleaning crew last week after he left it on board a flight.

Last week, Robert (who has chosen not to reveal his last name) left his laptop on board a flight back to Atlanta. Robert said he tried contacting Delta several times but was unable to get timely support to find his missing laptop. Desperate, he used Apple’s Find My iPhone app to track down his laptop to a nearby address where, police discovered, an employee who cleaned the airplane cabin lived.

Luckily, the police were able to the get the man who stole the laptop to track it down, repurchase it and return it to the original owner. (iStock)

The person living at the address admitted to detectives that he did clean the cabin and that he took the laptop and sold it for $500 cash.

Luckily, the police were able to the get the man who stole the laptop to track it down, repurchase it and return it to the original owner.

"Probably a lot of people after a long day of travel forget phones, laptops, whatever — and the fact that it can be so brazenly taken right out of an airport is frustrating and I think a little bit scary in the bigger picture,” Robert told local news channel WSB-TV.

Delta told local news that it was investigating the incident. The airline subcontracts airplane cleaning crews, so the thief was most likely not a Delta employee. Local police are still investigating the incident.

Delta did not immediately respond to Travel + Leisure’s request for comment.

Unfortunately, stealing on board aircraft is more common than expected. Earlier this year, passengers on a 13-hour South African Airways flight from Johannesburg to Hong Kong claimed that cash and jewelry were stolen from their carry-on luggage in the overhead compartments while they were sleeping.

This story originally appeared in Travel + Leisure.