We keep telling people to install a tracking device or two in your vehicle just in case it’s stolen. And with car theft rates continuing to climb in many cities, sadly if you don’t you might never know where your ride went. To show the effectiveness of the Apple AirTag, the cheapest tracker we know of, a man in Canada was able to locate his stolen vehicle in the Middle East, almost 7,000 miles away.
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While other GPS trackers can help with recovering cars, thieves often find them by tracing their connection from the battery. Factory GPS trackers are something most criminals know how to disable quickly. But with an Apple AirTag, it can be hidden virtually anywhere and there’s a way to remove the speaker so it won’t play a sound to assist thieves in locating it.
This specific example involves a 2022 GMC Yukon XL, an expensive full-size SUV, which are often the target of thieves wanting to ship to the Middle East, Africa, or elsewhere. According to a report from the Independent, the vehicle was boosted while it sat in a Toronto driveway back in August.
The owner used the AirTag to track its movement to the Port of Montreal then all the way to the United Arab Emirates. All this happened after the guy had another SUV stolen out of his driveway just a few months before.
Some people might be wondering how this guy wasn’t able to get his GMC back before it left the country if it had a tracker on it. The report mentions he contacted police, but let’s face it, with so much car theft they’re often overwhelmed, especially in cities like Toronto. Apparently, a police officer did use the AirTag signal to track it to a shipping container loaded onto a train car, but the train left for Montreal before the officer arrived at the location.
The SUV owner also hired a private investigator and has been in contact with Interpol.
The Toronto metro area has grappled with skyrocketing car theft rates for years now. It’s gotten so bad that at one point police were advising residents to get retractable bollards installed in their driveway.
Image via Apple
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[…] might think using something simple like an Apple AirTag to track their vehicle is silly, but many times it works. Once again we have a story of someone who recovered their stolen ride by […]