Apple’s AirTag has come to the rescue once again, as the popular tracking tag has helped a woman in the Netherlands recover her stolen bike.
Beatriz Spaltemberg and her husband, William Lacerda, are citizens of Utrecht, a city in the Netherlands. Lacerda says bike thefts are on the rise there, so that’s why he decided to put an AirTag on each of their bikes.
Spaltemberg went to the gym, as is her habit, and left her bike outside. Unfortunately, despite locking the bike, she forgot the key there, and that was enough for someone to take advantage of that and steal the bike.
“When she left [the gym] an hour or so later, the bike was gone,” Lacerda told 9to5Mac. Spaltemberg opened the Find My app on her iPhone and could she see the bike’s location almost in real time. The couple immediately called the police to report the situation. Lacerda told police they knew where the bike was, and two officers went with them to that location.
When they arrived at the indicated location, the stolen bike was exactly where the Find My app said it was. The couple used the Precision Finding feature to prove to the cops that it was Spaltemberg’s bike since the thief had locked it to a lamppost. Although the thief wasn’t there, the police are collecting footage from street cameras to find who stole the bike.
“It all happened in about an hour and a half. The police officer told me that we were very lucky to have an AirTag [on the bike] because bike thefts are common here, and usually, they only make a police report for such situations,” said Lacerda. He also told us that the AirTag was “very well hidden,” and that this was probably the reason why the thief didn’t suspect they were being tracked.
This bike recovery is just the most recent time that Apple’s AirTag has helped foiled bad guys.
In June, a Texas family, tired of their uncle’s gravesite being robbed, secreted an AirTag in a bronze memorial vase, allowing them to catch the thieves in the act. The family’s trick not only led to the arrest of the bad actors for stealing the Uncle’s vase but also led police to discover more than $62k worth of stolen bronze memorial vases.
In July, a Myrtle Beach thief that had hit a string of bars and restaurants, breaking into safes and stealing cash, was foiled by a stuffed bear that was carrying a little something extra, like an Apple AirTag. The staff of the Sneaky Beagle, one of the bars that had been burgled multiple times, set up a sting that involved a stuffed bear that had an AirTag secreted inside of it.
Unfortunately, AirTags have also been used for nefarious purposes. Recently, an Indianapolis man was murdered by being run over repeatedly by a vehicle allegedly driven by his girlfriend. The girlfriend, Gaylyn Morris, is said to have used an Apple AirTag to track her boyfriend, Andre Smith, to a bar where she saw him with another woman.
In May, a Columbia, Tennessee family said their trip to Disney World was ruined after they discovered that someone may have used an Apple AirTag to stalk them during their activities at the Florida amusement park.