A Waterbury, Connecticut man has been arrested after trying to use an AirTag to “track a victim’s car” as part of a “domestic incident.”
CTInsider reports that Wilfred Gonzalez was charged Sunday with first-degree stalking and violation of a protective order, Naugatuck police said. Both offenses are felonies. The 27-year-old was also charged with a misdemeanor breach of peace. He was released on $10,000 bond and is due again in court on March 30.
Police said they were dispatched Sunday for a “reported domestic dispute” to a Naugatuck address, and an investigator “discovered the accused placed a tracking device… in the victim’s vehicle.”
Luckily, the article indicates that the AirTag had been found before it could be used for the man’s nefarious purposes.
Apple’s trackers, which were developed to allow users to track items they may run the risk of losing, have unfortunately also have been tied to stalking cases and suspected car theft attempts, where the devices are used to track vehicles thieves may wish to steal.
While this has raised concerns among some about AirTags being used to track unwitting victims, iPhone users will receive a notification if an AirTag that does not belong to them is tracking their location, allowing them to disable the device’s tracking feature. As for Android users, they can use Apple’s Android Tracker Detect app, to detect if they’re being tracked. In both cases, users can force an AirTag to emit a sound if it’s detected near a user.
An Apple Support document on the feature says that if you think someone is using an AirTag or another item tracker to track your location, you can scan to try to find it. If the app detects an AirTag or compatible item tracker near you for at least 10 minutes, you can play a sound to help locate it.
The Tracker Detect app for Android devices is free and is available in the Google Play Store.