This is the method that thieves use to make use of an AirTag and thus be able to steal your vehicle.
In general, technology comes to make our lives much easier but it can also be used by criminals to carry out all their objectives, and it seems that vehicle theft has increased with the departure of Apple’s AirTags.
Thieves in Canada have found a novel use for Apple’s AirTags locator devices, and they use them to track down those vehicles that want to end up stealing.
Such as Explain York Regional Police in Canada’s Ontario area, thieves now use these AirTags of Apple to track the vehicles that will later be stolen.
Basically what they do is to place a tracker in an inconspicuous place on the car, to track it. Once the car is in an area that they consider easy for it to be stolen, they approach and with traditional methods, they take the vehicle.
In this way, criminals are armed with AirTags and when they see a high-end vehicle parked in a place in the city, they place the tracker on it. Then with location tracking capabilities they follow the vehicle until it reaches an area where it is easily removable.
The York Region Police have investigated five incidents in which suspects have used Apple AirTags to take high-end vehicles. They basically target valuable vehicles in public places, such as cars that are parked on the street or in unsafe parking lots, they place the AirTag and wait for the right moment.
While Apple offers anti-tracking features that alert users that a nearby AirTag is tracking them, this basically requires having an iPhone or other Apple device that supports the feature.
However, the York Regional Police consider these thefts as a growing risk that will increase in the coming months. However, vehicle theft in the region is quite common, and in one year more than 2000 cars were stolen, recovering only 350 of them.
The York Police advise car owners on certain preventive measures. On the one hand, they park their vehicle in a private or paid garage, which include deterrent measures inside the vehicle so that criminals do not approach, and recommend inspecting the car regularly for trackers.
Although these are robberies in Ontario, it is foreseeable that criminals from all over the world will use the same strategy, so we advise you to be especially careful from now on.