A prominent YouTuber has located a $13,000 (€12,500) tricycle which went missing at Dublin Airport last week.
Matt Galat, who vlogs under the name JaYoe, made a public appeal through social media and The Irish Times to recover his AZUB recumbent trike which he last saw go into the oversized baggage carousel at Dublin Airport for a WestJet flight to Calgary on June 23rd. He filmed it going through the screening process.
When he arrived at Calgary airport, there was no sign of the trike and it was missing until located by a baggage handler who saw his public plea.
He has more than a million and a half followers on social media in Asia, where he has been based for the last 15 years.
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Mr Galat had been to the manufacturer in the Czech Republic to supervise the new custom-made trike which he will use to cycle around the world.
He had boxed the trike up and travelled with it on a Ryanair flight from Vienna to Dublin.
The box, which weighed 30kg, was wrapped in plastic. There was a recycle label printed on one corner of the cardboard and four white stickers with “fragile/keep dry” on it. The box was taped closed with large packing staples to hold the cardboard together.
The trike arrived in Dublin without a problem, but he witnessed what he called a “great wall of bags” at Dublin Airport which were unclaimed, and filmed the scenes. “There were bags strewn everywhere,” he said.
Mr Galat said that he had a 4½ hour layover before his flight to Calgary, but the baggage-drop process, which he also filmed, took three hours and he spent another hour going through security. He only made his flight because it was delayed, but when he got to Calgary there was no sign of his trike.
The baggage handler at Dublin Airport contacted Mr Galat through his Instagram profile.
He promised to look for the large cardboard box containing the trike on the basement floor at check-in 14 in Terminal 1.
The baggage handler was delighted to report to him that the bag had been found and sent a picture of the luggage tag. The handler also wrote Mr Galat’s name and address on the box to ensure it gets to his intended destination.
Mr Galat has been in Portland, Oregon, for the last week and has been on the phone to WestJet every day to inquire about the whereabouts of his luggage. They told him that the trike was in Montreal, but he did not believe them.
“I had a hunch that it was still in Dublin. Thankfully I did. The first step has been taken, but I’m still a little nervous,” he said. “Calgary airport is a mess too.”
Mr Galat was back on hold to WestJet on Wednesday to get them to send the trike to Calgary and on to Portland where he is staying with friends.
Mr Galat said he was one of the lucky ones to recover his luggage, but others have not been so lucky.
