Gun stolen along with checked bag from Atlanta airport

ATLANTA - A gun briefly ended up on the streets after police say it was stolen from the North Terminal baggage area at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Atlanta Police say the gun was taken along with a metro-Atlanta man’s checked bag and now that passenger is demanding answers from the airline.

What we know:

Airport security cameras captured a woman, now identified as 45-year-old Tracy Njie, wheeling two bags out of the North Terminal in November. While normally that is not a problem, in this case it was. An Atlanta Police incident report says one of those bags did not belong to her.

"Checked my AirTag and it was about 10-15 miles away at a personal residence," said Robert Smith. Inside of that bag was Smith’s gun.

He says he would come to find out his bag had arrived at the airport on an earlier United Airlines flight.

He reported the theft to the Atlanta Police Department, then drove to the home in a different jurisdiction and called another agency to get it back.

APD says Clayton County Police initially did not arrest the woman, so officers got involved again.

Authorities took the woman into custody and identified her as Njie.

What they're saying:

Investigators told Smith that the suspect said it was an innocent mistake.

"The lady had said that it looked like hers, except for the fact that all my locks had been ripped off," he said.

Smith is happy she was caught, but he wants to know why a bag with a gun ends up on a carousel.

The other side:

United tells FOX 5 that is how it is always done: "For your information, a regular checked bag would be delivered to the carousel as normal. If the checked bag was a rifle case or something similar, that case is hand carried to the Baggage Service Office where the customer can then retrieve it."

We reached back out for clarification and asked if it was a mistake that a bag with a weapon was put onto a carousel. A spokeswoman responded: "No, there was not a mistake."

We responded to the United spokesperson’s email to further clarify. They responded: "By law, firearms should be unloaded and in a hard-sided, locked container in a checked bag. Customers would then retrieve their checked bag on the carousel."

Smith says he has flown with a checked gun on multiple airlines. He says on those carriers, his bag with a gun needs to be picked up at a counter.

"They should have had more rules and regulations and been a lot stricter as far as where my luggage was," he said.

While Smith got his gun back, he says he is still missing about $1,500 of hiking gear and clothes. He reported the theft to United, but has not gotten any money.

What's next:

FOX 5 also asked United about Smith’s missing items. "We’ve encouraged the customer to submit a claim form for our team’s compensation review but have yet to receive one. We also passed along details for the company that would replace or repair his damaged bag; however, they have not received any correspondence from the customer."

Smith disputes that and says he did file a form, but was told he needed receipts and photos which he does not have because a lot of the items were gifts.

"I was told that I had to produce receipts and evidence that the stuff was in the bag, which I didn't have," Smith said.