‘What Are You Doing Here’: South Florida Airport Worker Arrested After Passenger Tracks Stolen Luggage to His House, Discovers Trove of Other Possible Thefts

A retail worker at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was arrested after a Spirit Airlines passenger tracked her stolen luggage to his house and found a trove of discarded suitcases that may have belonged to other victims.

Junior Bazile, 29, was charged with grand theft after he was caught on camera rifling through Paola Garcia’s bag in the back room of a retail store where he worked at the airport, police said.

Garcia was scheduled to fly from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa on Spirit Airlines Flight 1555 back in March, but the flight got canceled, and the airline told passengers pick up their luggage at baggage claim.

Garcia said she panicked after her luggage never appeared on the conveyor belt in Terminal 4, where others booked on the same flight were retrieving their bags.

Garcia said she typically brings her pink hard-shell suitcase onboard, but this time, she was required to check it, and to her dismay, the suitcase never materialized on the collection carousel.

Dumbfounded, the woman said she stood there for more than two hours hoping the bag would pop up, not realizing she had been robbed.

“In my mind, I’m thinking I need my computer because I go to the university, I need my computer no matter what,” Garcia said. “I was waiting there at least two hours.”

According to police, Bazile had the pink suitcase in his hands and was examining the loot in a nearby stockroom.

It appeared the thief hit the jackpot, making off with a MacBook, two Apple watches, an iPad, jewelry and designer clothes.

From there, police said Bazile put the suitcase in a plastic bag, presumably to dispose of it.

Back at the terminal, Garcia finally made her way to the Spirit Airlines counter to see if they could find her lost bag.

But agents were also unaware the bag was stolen at that time, and told Garcia not to worry, that these issues happen all the time, and took her address, saying they would have a courier deliver it later.

The night passed and Garcia heard nothing from the airline.

The next morning, she said checked online and one of the Apple watches from the suitcase showed it was located at a house in Fort Lauderale, about 15 minutes from the airport.

Thinking the airline had sent her luggage to the wrong address, she mapped the location and went to the strange house herself.

“I said how can Spirit deliver my suitcase there,” she told Local 10 News in Fort Lauderdale. “Yes, because I needed my computer. I have test that day.”

When she arrived at 1017 NW 11th Ct., she was stunned to find a countless number of suitcases on the property, with contents plundered and scattered about. She called 911 and started filming video.

Soon, a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy was on the scene.

“The first thing the police told me was like, ‘What are you doing here? This is so dangerous for you to be here,’” Garcia told the station.

The deputy ran the address through a database and it came back as belonging to Bazile, who works for Paradies Shops, a retail company at the airport and was on duty the day that Garcia’s bag came up missing.

When confronted, Bazile allegedly confessed, saying he already fenced the stolen items, and he was arrested on the spot.

A TV reporter who returned to the man’s home later for a follow-up interview had an odd encounter with the man’s mother, who denied that Bazile had stolen anything despite multiple open suitcases in plain sight.

When the reporter confronted the woman about the watch pinging from inside her residence, the woman’s attitude changed and she allegedly assaulted the man and yanked his work ID from a lanyard around his neck.

Police were called, but the journalist declined to press charges.

Bazile has already made his first appearance on one charge of grand theft.

It’s not clear if he will face charges in any other airport thefts, but the Broward Sheriff’s office empasized that the investigation is continuing.

Spirit Airlines said the company reimbursed Garcia for her losses, and emphasized that so far it had found no evidence that any of its employees were involved.

Police have not said how Bazile accessed the baggage area.

The Paradies Lagardère store where Bazile worked issued a statement saying he had been fired over the incident.

‘What Are You Doing Here’: South Florida Airport Worker Arrested After Passenger Tracks Stolen Luggage to His House, Discovers Trove of Other Possible Thefts