COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Police in Montgomery County are looking for someone who used an Apple AirTag to follow a person home from a movie theater. That person figured out something was wrong when they got an alert on their phone.
The victim got to their Lower Providence home Friday night. They got a message on their iPhone saying “Unknown accessory detected. This item has been moving with you for a while.”
After they got inside the house, they got another message saying, "Your current location can be seen by the owner of this item.”
Then a map displayed on the phone, showing that they had been tracked from the Movie Tavern in Upper Providence to their house. The victim then looked out the window and saw a suspicious car, which slowly pulled away as the victim approached.
Police in Lower Providence are trying to figure out who was in that car, what the car was, exactly. There was a darker, older-model, light-gray silver hatchback. It could have been a Subaru, according to police. Lower Providence police say they did not recover the AirTag.
Police around the country say criminals have been using these devices to stalk people or track down cars they want to steal.
Retired FBI Special Agent J.J. Klaver has some advice.
"If someone has an iPhone, and they get this alert, the alert will allow you to ping the device and cause it to make an audible chirp to help you locate it," Klaver said.
"People should pay attention to the alerts they’re getting on their iPhones, so that if something pops up that says there’s an AirTag nearby, they should respond to that alert."
AirTags are quarter-size devices you can put with your keys, wallet, or other items you want to keep track of. So, people may not notice them. Apple says the devices are made with privacy in mind and if you ignore the alerts, they will make a noise on their own. However, that could take a few days, so when users are alerted, that is the ideal time to call the police.
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