After finding himself empty handed at the luggage carousel in Spain, Gil Even and Israeli business man living in Los Angeles, went on a cross-continent mission to reclaim his lost possessions .
The journey began on July 14th, when Even boarded a United Airways flight from Los Angeles to Barcelona, with a connection stop in Washington D.C.. Upon landing in the U.S. capital, he - like many other recent airline passengers - discovered that one of the two suitcases had been accidentally sent to Chicago.
The airport staff instructed him to go to file a complaint at the lost baggage counter in Barcelona upon his landing there , and he did just that and was told that his suitcase would arrive within 48 hours. But 10 days on - the suitcase was still MIA.
Prior to boarding his flight in L.A., Even attached Apple's AirTag tracking device to his luggage, allowing him to follow its' live location through an app. This enabled him to see his bag depart Chicago to Frankfurt, and then fly to Cairo, Egypt.
"No one in the airport in Cairo was answering my phone calls or emails," Evan said. "I saw on the app that my case was sitting at the airport in Egypt and not moving. I checked on it four times a day," he said.
Even has a Brazilian men's swimwear company, and explained that his suitcase contained samples and equipment for a photo shoot scheduled in Barcelona.
"I had to either go back to the U.S. to bring new merchandise, or fly to Egypt," he said.
So, indeed, Even began his journey to the middle eastern capital, but his travels were not without incident.
His first flight from Barcelona to Cairo was cancelled, so he purchased an new ticket, this time with two connection stops in Vienna, Austria and Amman, Jordan.
When he finally landed in Cairo, he discovered that the airport's WiFi was too weak for him to connect to the AirTag application in order for him to locate his bag.
Having come all this way, Even was determined to find a solution to whatever came in his way, and bought a local sim card.
He navigated to the live location of the bag, which brought him to the lost and found area, flooded with mounds of bags.
"I estimated that there were close to 10,000 bags, at the Cairo lost and found area, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack," Even said. "I went from room to room and between storage rooms, searching for my luggage, and only after half a day spent looking, I finally found the suitcase."
But his satisfaction was short lived, after he realized that his long search caused him to miss his flight back to Spain.
Not one to lose heart, Even decided to enjoy the sites and went on a tour of the pyramids in Giza.
As his was already in the neighborhood, he then hoped on a short flight to Tel Aviv for a visit with his family.
On Sunday, airlines permitting, Even plans to fly to his original destination - Barcelona.