Apple AirTags Being Used By Thieves To Steal Luxury Cars 

Apple AirTags is a great tracking device for when you lose your wallet or backpack. But thieves in Canada use the devices to track and steal luxury vehicles. 

“Brand name ‘air tags’ are placed in out-of-sight areas of the target vehicles when they are parked in public places like malls or parking lots,” York Regional Police wrote in a statement. 

York Region is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada. Since September, there have been five known incidents where suspects placed AirTags on high-end vehicles so they could locate and steal later. 

“Thieves then track the targeted vehicles to the victim’s residence, where they are stolen from the driveway,” police said. 

York Regional Police provided an example of one AirTag found in a truck’s trailer light socket. 

AirTags use ultra-wideband technology and leverage Apple’s crowdsourced Find My network of devices (there’s an estimated one billion devices worldwide that detect and anonymously report emitted Bluetooth signals) to detect the puck-shaped beacons. Once a device pings the AirTag, a notification is sent to the owner of the precise location of the missing item. In this case, the location of the targeted car. 

As new technology comes to market, car thieves utilize new devices to steal with ease. We noted months ago that British car thieves used a high-tech device disguised as a Nintendo Game Boy to steal cars in seconds. 

Luxury car owners in the York Region might want to take a good look at their vehicle and examine for tracking devices. It’s as simple as using a radio frequency detector to see if they’re being tracked.