AirTag-equipped SUV gets stolen and tracked across the planet
A Toronto man had his vehicle stolen for a second time and while Apple's AirTag inside didn't help recover it -- and neither did the police -- he got to track it all the way to Dubai.
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AirTag on a bag
Andrew, whose last name has been withheld for privacy reasons, had his first 2022 GMC Yukon XL stolen from his home in Toronto in May 2023. After the initial theft, he hid a pair of AirTags inside his second SUV.
In August of 2023, thieves struck again, nabbing his SUV after he returned home from vacation.
Andrew gave the AirTag information to police and watched as his Yukon traveled around Toronto, where police tracked it to a railway yard. However, they claimed to lack the authority to open the shipping container it was believed to be in, and referred Andrew to private security who apparently did nothing.
The SUV then proceeded to make its way via train to the Port of Montreal, where it was placed on a ship. The AirTags then stopped reporting the vehicle's location, likely because of lack of proximity to an iPhone connected to the internet.
Nearly a month later, in early September, Andrew's SUV updated its location from a shipping port in Antwerp, Belgium.
Finally, the vehicle came to an extended rest, more than 6,800 miles away in the United Arab Emirates. It was there a private investigator found Andrew's SUV for sale on a used car lot in Dubai.
The car remains in the used car lot at time of publication.
As CBC points out, Canada is currently dealing with an auto theft epidemic, and Andrew's choice to put an AirTag his Yukon gives police a rare insight into a shipping route used by thieves. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) told CBC it intercepted 1,806 stolen vehicles in 2023, a 34 percent increase from the previous year.
In November, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser launched a program offering AirTags to residents in car theft-prone neighborhoods, using Apple's Find My technology to help locate stolen vehicles.
While victims may be tempted to use an AirTag to track their vehicle to the thief's location to confront them, Apple, AppleInsider,, and many law enforcement agencies advise against doing that. Instead, victims of vehicle theft should report the crime to the police as soon as possible.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
He still wouldn't have been able to open the shipping container.
*It's Canada, but it's also still Toronto, with cross border gun traffic. Thanks 'Murica!
The fact that some lazy cops let him track his car on the way out of the country is just sweet icing on his SUV cake.
I had some holiday decorations stolen from my yard recently. I knew it was going to happen because people were stealing things from yards in the area over the last year. So I put an AirTag in one of my decorations.
Sure enough one morning I woke up and had all of my decorations gone. It was about 50 miles away in a neighboring town. I called the local police and told them I had items stolen and tracked it to someone's place. They asked if the items were stolen in the town I tracked them to. I said no. Dispatch said only after I had a police report from my local PD could they help out and send a unit over.
Went to my local PD, handed over evidence (three angles of the perp from my cameras) and my statement. 30 minutes later I had a police report number. I drove over to the place my AirTag was last seen. It was an apartment complex. I drove around and saw my decorations in front of their place. I called that local PD, explained what was going on and that I tracked my property to a location and had the police report from my local PD. They sent a unit out. I explained to the officers what was going on, handed them a print out of my AirTag location and picture of the perp. Went to the apartment with the police. While standing back they talked to the apartment resident (wasn't the perp). They explained what was going on and asked about the decorations. The woman in the apartment said she didn't know who put those decorations there. The police then asked if the owner (me) could take their property back? She said yes. So I scooped up my yard decorations without incident.
On the way out of the complex the officer said, "those AirTags are a big timesaver for us." We were all happy the outcome went smooth.
Ironically this is in a town where they're giving AirTags to people to track stolen cars. 🤦♂️
I had two bikes stole out of my garage—both with AirTags hidden in a bike bell. We tried to recover them WITH POLICE (never track down stolen stuff by yourself) when the thieves brought them to an open air flea market. We didn't have any luck finding them.
A couple days later they showed up in Mexico (one in Mexico City and the other in a smaller town). Based on the location of both AirTags and looking up on Google Street View, it looks like they're sitting in warehouses. Lost and gone forever. At least my credit card covered one, which I just purchased a month before it was stolen.
Not really sure why there's an organized crime ring importing stolen bikes into Mexico where they'd sell for significantly less than in the US. People suck.
If lack the authority then liaison with the port authority and Canadian customs to recover and investigate the theft. They would have had access to the export manifest and it would have been a major boon in figuring out how this type of organized crime was being carried out. No wonder why people feel abandoned by their governments.
It’s pathetic.
Oh wait, I forgot the priority is to investigate big tech.
Yes, there's a correlation. Tax the rich like we did back in the good ol' 1950s.
So there is little to no correlation. If you want to talk poverty rates there is certainly room to discuss all the factors that may influence that, in some other forum.
1. Electrocute with 1000 volts
2. Explode in a ball of flames
3. Send piercing sounds so loud bloody runs from your ears
Clearly that isn't going to happen but until it does, thieve will continue to steal as there is no recourse whatsoever if they are caught.
Maybe Saudi have it right with their draconian punishments?
Got a link for that? Otherwise, see above.
Call police file a report so you have incident number, then goto the location of the airtag and ideally the smarttag (get the smarttag 2, dont buy the smarttag 1 or +) if you can get close enough to the tag and make a connection you got your 100% proof right there and call the police and inform them that you be recovering your property withing 60 minutes at x address, they have to respond to that
if you can't get close enough, but as long as it's been constantly pinged around that area the police might help (or might be a hindrance) to let you walk the area so you can get closer to within 20 to 50 meters so you can get a connection and then you can use the precise finding to locate it if the object isn't visible (like in a garage/shed or house) the search area only needs to be about 50 meters due to the short range of Bluetooth so it get located quite quickly
for finding apple airtag, iPhone 11 or newer (older models can't tell you where the item is just that your connected to it and make it sound witch you don't want usually if stolen, and magnet inside the airtag should be removed to kill the speaker anyway to make It harder to locate)
For Samsung s21+/ultra or newer phones (non of the not base s21/22/23/24 models have UWB precise finding support but does have power level for un-precise finding, stronger the signal your getting closer > weaker your getting further away) or flip 2 or higher have precise finding as well (strongly recommend smarttag 2 now as just released, longer battery life and range, disabling/cutting the speaker is easy)
Apple has more phones to ping off but lacks history function so once your aware of the stolen items you have to just look at the apple find my app to see where it last was (you won't know where it has been only where it was currently last seen)
Samsung smart of things find app has 7 day smarttag history, super useful as you can see every fuel station they stopped at and can aks (compel) the police to get CCTV (surveillance cameras for usa) get a list of number plates once they stop a second time get another list of plates and you got the vehicle as only 1 should match between 2 or more stations (or Mutiple locations they stopped at)