Gravesite robbers responsible for $62K in thefts busted by AirTag

AirTag

What the family didn't bank on was that their clever use of Apple's item tracker would help authorities discover more than $62k worth of stolen bronze memorial vases.

Tony Velazquez told Click 2 Houston that his uncle's gravesite at the Restwood Memorial Park in Clute, Texas, had been repeatedly robbed.

Each time, thieves had absconded with a bronze memorial vase — which retails for $600 — that had adorned the grave.

As a precautionary measure, Velazquez dropped an AirTag into the vase in the event that thieves struck again. Velazquez gave the AirTag information to authorities, who used it to track the vase — and dozens more — to a residence 45 minutes away.

Local authorities arrested the suspects, accused of stealing 102 vases over the past two months.

Clute Police Chief James Fitch noted that the thieves planned on selling the vases for a quick buck at a local scrap yard.

"They had actually tried to take the entire vases to a scrap yard," Fitch said. "They turned them down luckily."

Apple's AirTag has been credited with foiling many would-be thieves. Recently, a Texas restaurant recovered its beloved 6-foot-tall, 150-pound fiberglass bull statue thanks to a well-placed AirTag.

In May, a hidden AirTag thwarted a $1.1 million armored truck robbery.

In March, a search warrant revealed how the Drug Enforcement Agency used an AirTag in an investigation, the first federal agency known to do so.