Strange chirps and alerts on iPhones have put some Americans on high alert over the past year and a half as they try to figure out why an unknown device is tracking their every move. It’s one of the newer crime trends that tech-savvy criminals are using to carry out car thefts and stalking, which has prompted police departments across the country to warn residents to be on the lookout for the new tactic. .
“In a traditional stalking case, there are usually people who are making contact or unwanted contact with a victim, repeatedly,” said Dearborn, Michigan police Sgt. James Isaacs told Fox 2 earlier this year. “They follow you where you work, where you go to school, where you go to eat. Using AirTag is just another way to do it in a more surreptitious way.”
Dearborn is among the large number of police departments that have warned the public since last year to be on high alert for criminals using Apple AirTags to rob or illegally follow people.
Apple launched AirTags in April 2021 as the latest way to find lost personal items, like keys or bags, and billed with the “Ping It. Find It” instructions. AirTag owners can clip the small puck-shaped device to something they often lose and simply ask Siri to track the AirTag, which has a built-in speaker that makes a sound when activated, or use an iPhone to track its location. exact.
APPLE AIRTAGS, DESIGNED TO HELP YOU TRACK YOUR STUFF, HAVE BECOME A TOOL OF STALKERS AND CRIMINALS
The quarter-sized Apple device allows users to keep track of their personal items via Bluetooth technology.
(Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
But criminals have turned to the device to carry out plots to stalk their exes or even steal cars.
Last December, a handful of Nashville women sounded the alarm that they were being followed by criminal suspects based on unknown devices attached to cars.
“I was helping a friend move out of her apartment and the trunk of my car was open and unlocked and I was going in and out with boxes and a bunch of her stuff,” Ellie Tindall told News 2 last year.
She said that’s when she believes the suspected criminals attached an AirTag to her car. She was alerted to the problem after she came home from helping her friend move and saw an alert on her phone that “an unknown accessory was following her.”
“I went out to check because I saw this on TikTok which is something criminals are doing for theft or sex trafficking. When I went outside to get the tag, there were two men in hoodies standing by my car waiting, and the moment they saw me open the door with three men, they turned and ran down the street,” Tindall said.
Another man in Nashville said he kept hearing a screeching noise coming from inside his car in February. His BMW was then stolen, WSMV reported at the time.
Apple AirTag device on keychain. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The man’s car was eventually recovered and its owner, Eric Johnson, was determined to find out if there was an AirTag in the car and possibly behind why the vehicle was stolen. Johnson made the risky move of disassembling a car door in search of the small device; he then found it inside the door on a little ledge.
“It was a really good feeling to find him and get him out of the car,” Johnson said at the time.
STALKING AND TRACKING THE APPLE AIRTAG BY CRIMINALS IS A PROBLEM: HOW TO STOP IT
It’s unclear if the AirTag was used to steal the car, but similar stories have been reported in other areas of the country and even abroad.
A man in Michigan had just bought a Dodge muscle car last December when he took it out for a drive to run errands at a mall and hang out at a friend’s house.
“When I went outside, I got a notification on my phone saying that an unknown AirTag was tracking me,” John Nelson told Fox 2 last year.
Nelson said he was able to connect his phone to the AirTag and have it play a sound. That’s when he discovered someone unscrewed a drain cover under the trunk of his 392 Scat Pack 2018 Charger and attached an AirTag.
“If they want it bad enough, they’re going to take it,” Nelson said.
The criminal trend has even spread to Canada, where Toronto authorities warned residents earlier this year about the trend.
“These little things are used to mark a vehicle. What thieves do is they walk around, ‘shop’ out in parking lots, and when they find a car they like, they glue it to the car or attach it.” somehow in the car,” Toronto police officer Marco Ricciardi told City News this summer.
For others, especially women, the use of AirTags by criminals has been terrifying.
A Cincinnati police officer was sentenced to probation this fall after he pleaded guilty to stalking a woman. Court documents indicate that Darryl Tyus attached an AirTag to the woman’s car and was able to follow her for weeks without her knowledge.
Last week, an Iowa man was arrested and charged after allegedly attaching an AirTag to a woman’s car and following her. The victim in the case was reportedly alerted to the AirTag by a phone notification and found the device in a spare tire. The victim then drove the device to a police station in West Des Moines, according to the Des Moines WHO.
Mechanic hands in full view while changing a tire.
(iStock)
The suspect, 63-year-old Carl Steven Shawver, later tracked the device to the station and told officers that he planted the device in the car of a woman he claimed was his wife because he believed she was having an affair. At least three AirTags were found in the victim’s personal belongings, the local news outlet reported.
ALLEGED SERIAL BAGGAGE THIEF IN FLORIDA ARRESTED DUE TO APPLE AIRTAG
Court documents indicate that Shawver and the victim were never in a relationship and that the victim had prevented Shawver from contacting her.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 09: Brooks Nader attends the Revolve Gallery at Hudson Yards on September 09, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Gotham City/WireImage)
((Photo by Gotham City/WireImage))
Swimsuit model Brooks Nader said earlier this year that she was tracked down by a stranger who slipped an AirTag into her jacket when she was in New York City. And another woman in the Philadelphia area said a movie outing turned scary when she got home and got a phone call that an “unknown prop” had been “moving in with you for a while,” the Philly Voice reported in January.
SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SWIMSUIT MODEL BROOKS NADER CLAIMS STALKER USED APPLE’S AIRTAG TO FOLLOW HER AT NIGHT
“Stalking and stalkerware existed before AirTags, but Apple made it cheaper and easier than ever for abusers and attackers to track their targets,” Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, told Motherboard earlier in the day. of this year. “Apple’s global network of devices gives AirTags unique power to stalk around the world. And Apple’s massive marketing campaign has helped highlight this type of technology to stalkers and abusers who might otherwise never find out about it. “.
Apple directed Fox News Digital to an update post on its website in February about additional security measures the company has taken in light of “reports of bad actors attempting to misuse the AirTag for malicious or criminal purposes.” and realized “that people can get unwanted tracking alerts.” for benign reasons.”
In addition to working with “various security groups,” Apple is also working with law enforcement departments on criminal issues involving devices.
“Each AirTag has a unique serial number, and paired AirTags are associated with an Apple ID. Paired account details may be provided by Apple in response to a valid law enforcement request or subpoena. We have successfully partnered In cases where we provided information, it has been used to trace an AirTag back to the perpetrator, who was later apprehended and charged,” Apple says on its website.
Two women filed a class action lawsuit against Apple earlier this month, alleging that AirTags made it easier for them to be stalked and harassed.
FILE PHOTO: The Apple logo is seen during the preview of the redesigned and reinvented Apple Fifth Avenue store in New York, U.S., September 19, 2019.
(REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File photo)
“What separates AirTag from any competitive product is its unparalleled accuracy, ease of use (it fits seamlessly into Apple’s existing product range), and affordability,” the lawsuit says. “Priced at just $29, it has become the weapon of choice for bullies and bullies.”
One of the plaintiffs in the case said she discovered AirTags on personal belongings months after she divorced her husband. The other plaintiff, identified as Lauren Hughes, said that after breaking up with a man, she began harassing her. After blocking it out and living in a hotel to stay safe and anonymous, she was alerted that there was an AirTag in her vicinity.
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“In addition, there is a huge imbalance between the protections available to iOS/Apple users and those available to people with Android devices, making Android users almost defenseless against AirTag tracking/harassment,” says the lawsuit.
Apple told Fox News Digital that it does not comment on ongoing litigation when asked about the lawsuit.
