You’re Jason Bourne, lone-wolf superspy and hero of The Bourne Ultimatum. You’ve just arrived at Dulles international airport and you’re tired and edgy. You arrived on BA223, cramped into economy because only the baddies fly business class, and now all you want to do is find a safe house and lie low for a couple of days. But where’s your luggage?

You knew that flying BA was risky – the airline is currently clearing a backlog of 22,000 mishandled bags – and now you’re faced with a lost-suitcase scenario.

It’s not a problem, though, because you’ve trained for this. As the black ops team sent to assassinate you join the queue at the BA ground-services desk, you whip out your PDA, open your luggage-tracking software and send a coded signal to the device embedded in your suitcase.

Somewhere far, far away, the Find-it unit is activated. Within moments, the gadget’s global-positioning system (GPS) has acquired three satellite signals, triangulated its exact position and transmitted it back to the PDA. A map pops up, and within 15 seconds – faster than a weary BA clerk can say “Your luggage isn’t lost, sir, it’s merely been mislaid” – a flashing red dot on the screen says your bag’s in Limassol.

“You can set up the Find-it system on a PC or a PDA in an hour,” says Jeremy Marks, director of the surveillance superstore Spycatcheronline. “It’s basically a global-positioning unit and a cellphone combined.” Originally designed to be attached to suspect vehicles – if you’re currently conducting an extramarital affair you might want to check for one hidden behind your bumper – the Find-it device weighs only 90g, is smaller than a Mars bar and is ideal for tracking lost luggage.

And its applications aren’t limited to the airport. “Imagine you’re in a cafe somewhere,” says Marks. “You look down and your bag has gone.” I look down and my bag has indeed gone, covertly lifted by one of his staff. My wallet, my camera and my car keys are in there, but Marks isn’t worried. “We’ll give him five minutes,” he says, booting up the computer.

The Find-it unit hidden in my bag is currently lying dormant to save battery power, but a click of the mouse awakens it. From now and for the next 12 hours it will report its position every 15 seconds. A map of the world appears on Marks’s computer screen, and after giving the thief a sporting chance, he clicks the button.

The map zooms in on Europe, the UK, then London and Portman Square, and there, like something from Our Man Flint, is a large red circle showing my bag heading north on Baker Street. Assuming I could track down a policeman, apprehending my quarry would be a piece of cake.

It’s impressive, but at £2,175, the Find-it device is too expensive to be practical. That could change, though, says Edward Zhu from his luggage factory in southern China.

“Within five years, the cost of similar technology will be about £20,” he says. “And by then it will be feasible to build these systems into suitcases.”

But how do airport-security agencies feel about an electronic device such as this concealed in luggage? “Our officers would need to be aware the unit was there,” said the US Transport Security Administration. “As long as we were familiar with the technology, it probably wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Clearly the device would have to be switched off while the aircraft was in the air,” says BAA, “but otherwise it would seem to be acceptable.”

But will it help to know your suitcase is in Sydney while you’re shivering in Stockholm? Probably not.

HOW TO PREVENT BAG LOSS

- Use durable luggage labels showing your name, flight number, destination address and telephone number. The main cause of lost luggage is the loss of the airline’s barcode label.

- Mark the inside of your bag with your name and mobile-phone number: if your labels are torn off, handlers will open the bag to find identifiers.

- Luggage checked in late may not even make it onto the flight and will follow on later, increasing the chances of it going astray. Customise your bag using ribbons or a coloured luggage strap to prevent anyone else from accidentally taking it from the carousel.

- If your bag goes missing, fill in the forms before leaving the airport and do not leave without the telephone number of the handling desk, a claim number and the name of a supervisor.

- List the items packed before leaving home and take a copy with you (but not in your checked luggage). It makes the compensation process much easier.