CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — The Gavino family turned their vacation to the North Carolina mountains into a sleuth mission to find their stolen luggage, which lead to the discovery of multiple stolen suitcases in Gastonia.

“I wanted justice,” Catherine Gavino told Queen City News in an exclusive interview Tuesday afternoon.

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Gavino and her family are originally from the Miami area, but had their sights set to spend Christmas in the Carolinas.

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

In a twist of irony, Gavino pulled up her phone to check the location of her newly bought AirTag.

She explained that she bought it Thursday night.

“And I watched a YouTube video Friday morning and threw it in the luggage,” Gavino said.

It was an idea she said she got from a number of influencers online.

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

Stolen is what happened, according to a police report from the Gastonia Police Department.

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 to Gastonia.

The Gavino family quickly rented their vehicles, and began to follow the AirTag to a neighborhood in Gastonia, but were unable to find the exact location.

The AirTag, according to Gavino, stopped displaying its location after a center point, so the search that Friday afternoon was called off.

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

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The suitcase was not full of sentimental items, but clothes her mother and father specifically bought for their holiday trip. All had to be replaced on the trip.

Christmas Day is when the detective of the family decided to make one last attempt.

Gavino dropped off two family members at the airport on Dec. 25, and decided to check her Gavino location one more time.

It showed up at a house on McGuire Street in Gastonia.

“I told my dad who was with me, ‘look it’s only 20 minutes, let’s swing by,’” she said.

Gavino not only found the house, but saw the Gavino was still at the location.

She contacted Gastonia Police who arrived and notified the home owners of the situation.

Inside, they not only found Gavino family suitcase, but the suitcase of another victim who had their luggage stolen from the airport.

Catherine told Queen City News that Gastonia Police informed her that “someone else called with the same issue. And they had an air tag. [Police] came out here earlier, but it was pinging in the house behind.”

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

“Police believe they may have sold the clothes for money, who knows,” Catherine 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 Gavino.”

The suspect in this case was arrested and charged with multiple theft crimes, including a drug charge.

They are being held on a $10,000 bond.

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