A bicyclist's fortuitous AirPod bounce after a terrible crash helped police track down a hit-and-run driver.
Suspect's vehicle was tracked by an AirPod that fell into it after accident. Photo: Martin County Sheriff's Office.
A New York Times report told the story of 15-year-old Lochlan Nicol of Jensen Beach, Florida, who rode his bike to a gas station on the evening of May 22nd, 2024 to get some ice cream. An SUV suddenly turning into the station's driveway caused the teen to crash, with Nicol's head going through the rear-passenger window.
During the accident, one of the boy's AirPods fell out and into the SUV, lodging itself under a floor mat. The driver did stop briefly, but only to move the unconscious and seriously injured Nicol out of the road before fleeing the scene.
Nicol suffered fractures to his nose, cheekbone, and eye socket, along with a major gash along his leg. The incident was reported to police, and Nicol was flown by helicopter to the hospital.
Once informed of the crash, Nicols' girlfriend went to the scene of the crash and located his wallet, phone, watch, and AirPods case. She took the items to the hospital and noticed that only one AirPod was in the case.
Nicol had been wearing the other AirPod when the accident occurred, but it was not recovered. When the teen later opened Find My to try and locate the AirPod, it showed that it was at an address about four miles from the scene of the crime.
Police were contacted, and Nicol provided the information.
"It was that earbud that provided geo-tracking right to the suspect's Jensen Beach home," a sheriff's spokesman said. "There's no moral to the story. It was one of those things. It was a good break for us, a real good break."
The tracking information provided by the AirPod let police to a Jensen Beach address with a silver Hyundai Santa Fe with a broken rear passenger-side window. The owner, 49-year-old Peter Bradford Swing, was arrested, and the dislodged AirPod recovered.
He later confessed to police that he fled the scene because he had previously been jailed on drug charges. Swing now faces up to 15 years for allegedly failing to stop at the scene of a crash with great bodily injury, a felony offense.
"It's honestly amazing," Lochlan's father, Derek Nicol, said. "People say it's karma. So maybe it's karma that it happened. It's just weird."