Toronto: Tech giant Apple’s AirTags helped a man locate and recover his stolen Range Rover in Canada, media reports said.
According to AppleInsider, the owner of the SUV attached three AirTag trackers that helped him locate the vehicle, which was then recovered by police.
As per the report, after having his first Range Rover stolen a month ago, he purchased an identical unit to replace the lost vehicle.
The first unit was never found, as the thief threw the owner’s wallet and family members’ phone out of the Rover before driving off with it in an apparent attempt to prevent tracking.
“The thieves were able to disable the tracker in my car, put there by the manufacturer,” according to the man, who for safety concerns has been identified only by his first name, Lorne.
These thieves were also able to steal the car despite him having placed his keys into a faraday box, which prevents criminals remotely copying a key fob and mimicking its signal to unlock the car. Consequently, Lorne decided to place three AirTags in this second vehicle. He placed one in the glovebox, one inside the spare tire, and a third under the back seat.
On June 22, this SUV was parked away from the garageand at the very next day, Lorne was woken up by the news that his car was stolen. He was however able to use the Find My app to follow the car to a metal recycling plant in the nearby Scarborough district. Lorne was unable to contact law enforcement after arriving at the plant, which led him to drive to the police station instead.
AirTag that let users keep track of personal items like keys, wallet, purse, backpack, luggage and more through the Find My app. It sends out a secure Bluetooth signal that can be detected by nearby devices in the Find My network. These devices send the location of your AirTag to iCloud — then you can go to the Find My app and see it on a map. The whole process is anonymous and encrypted to protect your privacy.