That man could have easily tracked his bags with one of those cheap GPS trackers as well... wait a moment.. this is an article about how Airtags are supposed to be used. Nothing to see here.
AirTags last longer than a device that uses GPS and cellular to provide location data. AirTags offload the sensor energy needs to the mobile devices everyone carries on their person and keep charged.
I know :) [1]. It's just the usual response to any of those "creep stalks victim using Airtag" article popping up here repeatedly in the past. I first thought it was one of those again.
[1] In case anyone wants to read a bit more about this: Secure Mobile Networking Lab has excellent information about how all this works: https://github.com/seemoo-lab/openhaystack and its linked references.