AirTag tracks car thieves, but vehicle wrecked during police chase

Police quickly tracked down a stolen car with the owner's AirTag inside, but the thieves then crashed it during a high-speed chase.

Apple's AirTags have now been used countless times to help track down a stolen vehicle, and lead to thieves being arrested. Now in the North Carolina city of Cary, a similar tale has led not to the recovery of a vehicle, but the destruction of it.

According to local television station WRAL News, three juvenile thieves took Muhammad family's Toyota Camry. Later, it was discovered that footage of them stealing the car was recorded on a neighbor's doorbell camera, but at first the Muhammads had no idea it was gone.

"We woke up, and I looked outside and I asked my wife, 'Hey, do you know your car's no longer in the driveway?'" Antar Muhammad told WRAL.

"You feel violated," Leslie Muhammad said, "know that something you own, someone has taken."

However, Antar Muhammad said that he now routinely puts AirTags in everything, from the car to new luggage. He says he stood with police in his kitchen as he showed the officers his iPhone's Find My app indicating the precisely location of the stolen car.

"I'm able to pinpoint exactly where it's at and actually to zoom in and almost precisely pick out the parking space the car was in," he continued.

The car was being held 12 miles away in Durham city, and police departments from both cities collaborated on the arrest.

However, as the Durham PD officers approached the stolen car, the thieves drove it away at speed. The thieves reportedly almost hit a police cruiser, and did shortly afterwards crash the car on Martin Luther King Jr Parkway.

The three thieves were arrested at the scene, and guns found in the car were taken by police. The car itself has been towed away.

Nonetheless, Leslie Muhammad is delighted that the thieves were caught. "They picked the wrong car that night," she said.

12 Comments

DAalseth 3033 comments · 6 Years

About 1 year ago

has led not to the recovery of a vehicle, but the destruction of it.
To be clear the car WAS recovered. It was just underivable afterwards.

charlesatlas 401 comments · 9 Years

Never should have been a high-speed chase. First, everybody knows they're dangerous, which is why they're against department policy in many cities. And second, it's being tracked. That's the whole point of the story. They could have kept a discreet distance until it parked. The Airtag battery would have lasted and they couldn't have lost track of the car. Better yet, you never know what kind of goodies those thieves might have led them to if you had just followed them. Maybe a chop shop. There was no need to catch them immediately.

charlesatlas said:

Never should have been a high-speed chase. First, everybody knows they're dangerous, which is why they're against department policy in many cities. And second, it's being tracked. That's the whole point of the story. They could have kept a discreet distance until it parked. The Airtag battery would have lasted and they couldn't have lost track of the car. Better yet, you never know what kind of goodies those thieves might have led them to if you had just followed them. Maybe a chop shop. There was no need to catch them immediately.

Plus even if they find the car abandoned a mile away, their fingerprints would be all over it. It’s not like they would be impossible to gather up later.

darkvader 1146 comments · 15 Years

charlesatlas said:

Never should have been a high-speed chase. First, everybody knows they're dangerous, which is why they're against department policy in many cities. And second, it's being tracked. That's the whole point of the story. They could have kept a discreet distance until it parked. The Airtag battery would have lasted and they couldn't have lost track of the car. Better yet, you never know what kind of goodies those thieves might have led them to if you had just followed them. Maybe a chop shop. There was no need to catch them immediately.

ACAB. That's really what the takeaway here is. A high speed chase isn't simple stupidity, it's actual malice.