Michigan resident John Nelson claims that he was recently targeted by car thieves who hid one of Apple's AirTags in his vehicle, a Dodge Charger.
Nelson spent two hours at the Great Lakes Crossing shopping center, according to a report. He got a notification on his phone that he was being tracked by an AirTag.
Nelson was able to play a sound on the AirTag, which is one of the safety features that Apple has made available in addition to the tracking notifications, because he was able to tap on the notification. Nelson found the AirTag under the drain cap in the trunk of his car after the sound the AirTag made.
Nelson said that the thieves were likely going to scrap the vehicle. A Michigan auto theft task force in Detroit told Fox 2 that they are seeing more cases like these. Thieves use an AirTag to track the vehicle and then wait for the right time to steal it. Nelson's Dodge cars are popular targets.
Nelson turned the AirTag over to the police because he was afraid that something similar could happen again.
Canadian police have released a report suggesting that AirTags are being used in car thefts. In the York Region, there have been five incidents where thieves used AirTags to target high-end vehicles.
Anti- tracking features have been introduced by Apple to alert users if an unknown AirTag is nearby. Apple released an app forAndroid users that allows them to detect the AirTags, which used to be limited to iPhone users.
There is a feature that causes the phone to emit a sound after a short period of time if the user plays a sound nearby. The Find My app has instructions on how to remove the battery from a rogue AirTag to prevent it from being used for tracking purposes.
