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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.
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.
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14 Comments
I don't see the why someone shouldn't confront the thief when the authorities are unable to do anything.
Police should replace his vehicle.
I'll share my recent AirTag theft recovery experience. Maybe this helps those in a similar bind.
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.