Man arrested for AirTag stalking a victim in Iowa

In a bizarre incident of AirTag stalking, 63-year-old Carl Steven from Bettendorf, Iowa was arrested for misusing the device to track a woman multiple times. According to Keloland, the stalker said he believed the victim was his spouse.

AirTag is an electronic tracker that is used to track items like purses, bags, keys, and more. And with Find My network support, users can not only locate their tracker in real time but also share locations across Apple’s network of iOS devices and more.

Unfortunately, the tracker has been used in multiple incidents of harassment and stalking by ex-boyfriends and ex-husbands as domestic violence and privacy experts had suspected. Therefore, Apple introduced a new safety warning during the AirTag setup which alerts the users that it was a criminal act to use the device to stalk and law enforcement agencies will be given their information if requested.

“AirTag is meant to track their own belongings, that using AirTag to track people without consent is a crime in many regions around the world, that AirTag is designed to be detected by victims, and that law enforcement can request identifying information about the owner of the AirTag.”

Man uses three AirTags were found in the victim’s car

As per the report, Steven was caught misusing the AirTag to track the victim. The victim says, she got an alert on her smartphone through Apple’s anti-stalking notification feature, and an AirTag was found in the victim’s spare tires which she took to West Des Moines Police.

During search of the victim’s vehicle, the second tracker was found in a wallet in a plastic sandwich bag, and the third was found under the vehicle, wrapped in a plastic case and attached to the subframe.

According to court records, the stalker told the police that he married the victim but the two never had any relationship. Currently, he is in Polk County Jail on a $3,000 bond, with a preliminary hearing set for December 19.

Despite Shawver telling police that he and the victim were married, the two never had a relationship and the victim had blocked Shawver from calling and messaging her.

An officer with the West Des Moines Police Department placed all the AirTags into evidence, and when doing so saw Shawver in his vehicle in the station’s parking lot. The officer later conducted a traffic stop on Shawver and during the stop Shawver told the officer that he and the victim had agreed to meet at the station, court records state.

Recently it was reported that women had filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple over “dangerous” AirTag stalking by ex-boyfriends and ex-husbands.

Man uses three AirTags were found in the victim’s car

Ali Hasnain