Within hours of purchasing a new truck, the owner discovered an AirTag in his vehicle after receiving a safety alert on his iPhone that an unknown AirTag was traveling with him. Suspecting foul play, the man reported the tracker to the Fayette County police and found that the truck was stolen and he would have been the victim of double theft if he had ignored the safety alerts.
AirTag reunite an owner with this stolen truck
Fox7Autin reports that the Fayette County Sheriff’s deputy, Lt. David Beyer ran the license plates of the reported truck and found that it was stolen from Harris County and the thief was likely tracking the vehicle for a double steal. He said:
Lt. Beyer believes a double steal was about to be in play. “I’m sure the individuals who had the tracking device in there probably had a key to it so all they had to do was follow this guy, to where ever the car was parked, get in it, take off in it,” he said.
Fortunately, the stolen truck was returned to its first owner but the man who had purchased the vehicle lost his $800 down payment.
Recently, several reports of car theft or stalking involve an AirTag. Because of its small size, attackers hide the tracker in the vehicle and track the victims’ location via the Find My app.
Luckily, Apple has equipped its compact tracker with safety and security features to prevent stalking or unwarranted tracking. On being separated from the owner, the tracker makes sends out a sound at intervals, and iPhone users receive a notification when an unknown AirTag or tracker is found traveling with them. The company has also launched the “Tracker Detect” app on Android to search for unknown trackers.
Although Apple is criticized for the use of AirTag in car theft and stalking incidents, people do not realize that it is the only tracker on the market with the aforementioned safety feature which have led to the discovery of those suspicious trackers.
