Bored with having their uncle’s gravesite repeatedly robbed, a Texas household used a hidden Apple AirTag to catch the low-life criminals within the act. Along with foiling the grave robbers, the AirTag additionally helped police discover greater than $62,000 of stolen bronze memorial vases.
The AirTag is a small machine bought by Apple that permits customers to maintain observe of objects, together with purses, keychains, briefcases, and extra.
In an interview with KPRC Click2Houston, Tony Velazquez mentioned that his uncle’s gravesite at Restwood Memorial Park in Clute, Texas, had been repeatedly robbed. Every time, the thieves stole a $600 bronze memorial vase marking the grave.
In an effort to foil the dangerous actors, Velazquez positioned an AirTag inside one of many alternative vases, simply in case the thieves repeated the theft. Not like some Apple customers who’ve tried to make use of an AirTag to trace the dangerous guys on their very own, Velazquez properly offered the AirTag data to the authorities, who have been capable of observe the stolen vase to an deal with about 45 minutes away, the place it was discovered with 102 different vases.
Authorities arrested the dangerous guys, who have been charged with stealing the vases over the course of two months.
Clute Police Chief James Fitch mentioned the thieves had deliberate to attain a fast buck by promoting the vases to a neighborhood scrap yard.
That they had really tried to take your entire vases to a scrap yard. They turned them down fortunately.James Fitch, Clute Police Chief
That is simply the newest occasion of Apple AirTags foiling dangerous actors’ plans.
A report from Chicago’s WGN says an AirTag led to the arrest of two thieves that had stolen $1.1 million from a Brinks truck. The monitoring machine had been hidden in one of many cash bins.
In 2022 the USA Drug Enforcement Company planted an AirTag in a cargo of unlawful drug-making paraphernalia from China to an unlawful narcotics vendor within the US. A retired detective informed Forbes that an AirTag “could be hidden simpler and is much less more likely to be discovered by suspects,” including “Suspects are getting higher at countersurveillance strategies.”
Sadly, not everybody contacts the police, with some preferring to take issues into their very own palms.
A Texas man in March tracked his stolen truck utilizing an AirTag he had hidden within the automobile. After monitoring his stolen automobile, the person alerted police in regards to the theft however didn’t look forward to them to reach. As a substitute, he confronted the alleged thief, taking pictures and killing him.
Earlier this month, Mexican journalist Pamela Cerdeira used AirTags to show that the Mexican authorities was mishandling donations meant for earthquake victims in Turkey. As a substitute of being shipped to Turkey, the objects donated by well-meaning of us have been as a substitute being bought in Mexican markets.
Cerdeira donated two objects with AirTags secreted in them, as she needed to trace them and see the place the objects have been really despatched. Neither of the objects — rice and a pack of bathroom rolls — made it to Turkey, by no means leaving Mexico’s borders.
Sadly, AirTags are additionally getting used for less-than-honorable functions.
An Indianapolis man died after being run over a number of occasions by a automobile allegedly pushed by his jealous girlfriend. The girlfriend, Gaylyn Morris, used an Apple AirTag to trace her boyfriend, Andre Smith, to Tilly’s Pub in Indianapolis the place she noticed him hanging out with one other lady.
Smith was then hit a number of occasions by a automotive exterior the pub. When emergency providers arrived, they found him underneath the automobile. He was pronounced lifeless on the scene.