Tracker helps golfer find his needle in a haystack in travel nightmare

Small tracking devices are now being pushed as everyday tech designed to make your life easier.

In this four-part investigation, 9news.com.au is examining the concerns and fears around privacy and stalking, as well as some of the benefits they do bring.

It should have been the trip of a lifetime.

But Cory Prenatt's dream quickly crumbled into a nightmare, lasting three long months.

His torment only ended thanks to a small $45 Apple AirTag, which his wife Jennifer had urged him to buy before his ill-fated holiday, and one company's determined search to find a proverbial needle in a haystack.

READ MORE: 'This is terrifying': The rise of tracker device stalking

In May, with a group of his best-golfing buddies, Prenatt had set off from Tampa in Florida to the United Kingdom for a retirement celebration.

It was a trip years in the planning.

The 47-year-old and his mates would travel around Scotland, playing six of the greatest golf courses in the world.

But the journey got off to a rocky start.

Bad weather struck, and Prenatt's flight was diverted to New York's Newark Airport.

From there, Prenatt was shuffled onto a British Airways flight to London Heathrow.

His golf clubs and luggage never got loaded on the plane.

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Not that he knew it then, but Prenatt wouldn't see his clubs again for almost 90 days.

Even today, six months later, some of Prenatt's personal belongings remain missing, likely been forever lost by British Airways.

As a result, Prenatt, a handy six-handicap golfer, was forced to play his entire trip and the golf courses he had long dreamed about using inferior rental clubs.

He also had to wear a hodge-podge of clothing and footwear, something his friends ribbed him about throughout the trip.

Prenatt could handle the jokes.

But not having his own clubs on this once-in-a-lifetime trip was hugely frustrating.

Have you got a tracking device story? Email msaunokonoko@nine.com.au

"I made the most of it," he said.

"But it almost makes me sick to my stomach thinking back to spending all this money, all this time planning this trip, and not having clothes or golf clubs."

Especially galling for Prenatt was that he could see exactly where his "missing" clubs were all along, thanks to his AirTag, a Bluetooth-enabled device that can be attached to an object so its location can be tracked.

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READ MORE: 'This is terrifying': The rise of tracker device stalking

With almost military-grade precision, Prenatt's AirTag was pinging on a satellite map right on a cavernous luggage facility in the English town Olbury, west of Birmingham.

"It provided me some sense of comfort knowing where my golf clubs are," Prenatt said of the device, which can be used to help locate lost keys and other items.

"I know they're not in someone's garage or somewhere that they're not supposed to be."

When 9news.com.au first spoke to Prenatt he had long returned to the US, but the clubs hadn't moved an inch.

The AirTag was still pinging. And the clubs were still sat inside that huge warehouse.

Prenatt had tried in vain to contact British Airways, to get his possessions back.

But his emails went unanswered, and phone calls were a time-sucking, soul-destroying experience.

"It was taking maybe two hours to get an operator on the line," Prenatt said.

At the time, shocking photos of "luggage mountains" at Heathrow were going viral on the internet, and illustrated how badly airlines were buckling under the return of international travel after COVID-19 restrictions had ended.

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When 9news.com.au contacted BA about Prenatt's situation and even pinpointed the location of his belongings, a spokesperson replied: "We're doing everything we can to reunite our customer with their baggage as soon as possible."

With BA unable or unwilling to help, 9news.com.au contacted the freight company which owned the luggage storage facility, DPD Group.

DPD confirmed Prenatt's clubs had been dropped at their warehouses.

But the delivery had been made without any identifying documentation.

What that meant was Prenatt's clubs could be anywhere inside their vast warehouse, which at 390 metres measures almost the same length as four football fields.

The tiny AirTag came to Prenatt's rescue.

Thanks to a location map flagged by the AirTag, and armed with a visual description of the clubs, DPD focused their search on a specific part of the facility.

In less than one day, DPD staff had found his clubs and put them on a flight to Florida, where a relieved Prenatt, who had given up all hope, couldn't believe his luck.

Apple's AirTag and other Bluetooth tracking devices emerged as big winners from the international travel chaos during the northern hemisphere summer.

As headlines of lost and mishandled luggage rolled in, so did the stories of people recovering their items through the Bluetooth devices, just like Prenatt.

The AirTags have proven useful in recovering stolen property, too.

In April, 9news.com.au reported on Sydney resident Graham Tait, who had $10,000 worth of items allegedly stolen from his car while he was on holiday in South Australia.

Fortunately for Tait, he'd attached an AirTag to several of his items.

And when he activated the search function, it pinged from a room in the hotel he was staying in.

Tait called the police and the alleged offenders were arrested.

The AirTag also came to the rescue for South Australian tradie Trent Morey, when his Nissan Navara ute got nicked in the middle of the night.

Morey woke to the sound of his ute, loaded up with his tools, hitting garbage bins as the alleged thieves sped away.

What the alleged thieves hadn't counted on was an AirTag attached to the keys, which had allegedly been stolen from Morey's caravan.

Morey used the tracking technology to locate his missing Navara on a nearby road.

He called the police and they arrested three young men.