14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s AirTags come in handy in a wide variety of scenarios, and while they’re not necessarily supposed to be used this way, they can even come in handy when trying to track stolen goods.
Trail of Bits CEO Dan Guido has recently demonstrated how everything works, as he managed to track down and recover his stolen scooter after receiving information from the AirTags that were previously installed on the scooter.
“My scooter was stolen last week. Unknown to the thief, I hid two Airtags inside it. I was able to use the Apple Find My network and UWB direction finding to recover the scooter today,” Guido explained in a series of tweets published a few days ago.
“I hid two Airtags inside the scooter: one “decoy” in the wheel well and a second, more subtle, one inside the stem. Covered in black duct tape, they’re hard to see.”
Since tracking down a stolen good and trying to get it back on your own isn’t necessarily the smartest choice, Guido reached out to the NYPD, hoping the police would help knock on the door of the thief. However, it wasn’t all that easy because the police officers weren’t familiar with how the AirTags work in the first place.
Mission accomplished
After a thorough demo of the new technology, a two-man patrol and the scooter owner followed the signal of the AirTags, eventually finding the device in a shop.
“I received a UWB ping as I walked in the door. It’s 13ft away! I gestured to keep walking, it’s here. The store was unkempt with piles of scooters. There was not a single new scooter in the store, every item on sale was second-hand,” he says. “Seconds later, I walked right into it. My scooter! The employees were in disbelief: How did I know it was mine? I played sounds from an Airtag. Not good enough. I paired to it with the Ninebot iOS app. This convinced the last holdouts.”
The full story is available on Twitter, along with a series of recommendations, so if also intend to use an AirTag to track your goods, the shared tips could really come in handy.