North Carolina couple outsmarts car thieves with Apple AirTag: 'They picked the wrong car'



A couple in North Carolina had their car stolen while they were asleep. However, they were able to locate the criminals within minutes, thanks to an Apple AirTag.

Antar and Leslie Muhammad woke up Saturday morning to discover that their Toyota Camry was stolen right out of their driveway in Cary, North Carolina.

Antar Muhammad told WRAL, "We woke up, and I looked outside, and I asked my wife, 'Hey, do you know your car's no longer in the driveway?'"

A doorbell camera caught the moment that thieves stole the Muhammads' car on Friday night.

"They were going around checking vehicles, and they thought they got lucky. They picked the wrong vehicle. They just didn’t realize it," Antar Muhammad said.

Luckily for the couple and unlucky for the criminals, the Muhammads wisely placed an Apple AirTag device in both of their cars.

An Apple AirTag is a small, lightweight disc that uses a technology called ultra-wideband and Apple's Find My app to provide precise location tracking capabilities. AirTags, which debuted in 2021, give Apple users the ability to track their wallets, luggage, keys, and more.

Antar told the local outlet, "One hundred dollars for a pack of 4 – it's one of the greatest security systems you can have. As soon as we get a new vehicle or new item – backpack or purse or luggage – I open one up and put one in just for safety measures."

Leslie said, "If there’s an easy, especially low-budget, way of finding a way to keep your home and family and items secure, that’s the best way to do it."

The couple used the Find My app to accurately track down the stolen vehicle within minutes.

"I'm able to pinpoint exactly where it's at and actually to zoom in and almost precisely pick out the parking space the car was in," Antar explained.

The thieves had driven the stolen car to a neighborhood about 12 miles away. The couple notified the local police, who then contacted the Durham Police Department.

Durham police officers found the couple's car, but the thieves had already crashed it. Durham police officers took three underage suspects into custody.

The couple said the entire ordeal was resolved in about two and a half hours.

"Thank God, we were safe. Nothing valuable was in there," Antar said.

Leslie added, "The way technology is advancing, I think so will the mindset of some of the thieves. I think it's important for people to be aware of what’s out there to support them when it comes to their own personal safety and your items – your home, your cars. If there's an easy, especially low-budget way, to keep your home and family secure, that’s the best way to do it."

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Report: Women across the country are being stalked using Apple tracking devices



Apple AirTags were designed to help users keep track of important but easy-to-lose possessions such as wallets, purses, and keys. But according to a new report from Vice, nefarious actors across the country are using the inexpensive tracking devices to stalk and harass women.

What are the details?

The news outlet reported this week that it obtained 150 reports from eight of the country's largest police departments within the last eight months that mentioned AirTags. Of the 150 reports, 50 of them reportedly involved women who alerted police after they started getting notifications that they were being tracked by an AirTag they didn't own.

According to Vice, 25 of those reports identified "a man in their lives — ex-partners, husbands, bosses — who they strongly suspected planted the AirTags on their cars in order to follow and harass them."

AirTags, unveiled by Apple about a year ago, are Bluetooth-enabled, battery-operated devices roughly the size of a half-dollar coin that can be attached to items and tracked with connected Apple devices. They work by pinging nearby Bluetooth-connected Apple devices using the "Find My" app, then showing the tracked objects on a map.

In its report, Vice kept the details of the police records vague in order to protect the victims' identities but shared overviews of several of the incidents.

In one case, a woman called the police after a man who had been harassing her placed an AirTag in her car and threatened to make her life hell. In another case, a woman reported to police that her ex had slashed her car's tires and left an AirTag in the vehicle to monitor her whereabouts. In yet another case, a woman reported that she started noticing something beeping inside her vehicle every time she left her house. Later, when she confronted an ex of hers, he admitted to placing an AirTag in her car to see if she was "cheating."

Other examples included revelations of exes or controlling partners mysteriously showing up at the same places as the women. In many instances, the women reportedly feared they would be the victims of physical violence.

Introducing AirTag | Couch | Apple www.youtube.com

What if you don't have an iPhone?

On its product description page for AirTags, Apple states that the devices are "designed to discourage unwanted tracking."

"If someone else’s AirTag finds its way into your stuff, your iPhone will notice it’s traveling with you and send you an alert," the tech giant explains. "After a while, if you still haven’t found it, the AirTag will start playing a sound to let you know it’s there."

In an ironic effort to enhance privacy, Apple notes that "only you can see where your AirTag is ... not even Apple knows the location of your AirTag or the identity of the device that helps find it."

But what about people who don't own an iPhone or other Apple device? For them, the danger is patently clear. No notifications about a nearby AirTag would ever be sent, and therefore they would never know that they are being tracked.

Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Vice that the feature amounts to an obvious oversight by Apple — and a dangerous one at that.

"That was a completely ridiculous way to launch a new device, without having taken into account its use in a domestic violence situation," she said, adding, "But specifically, the blind spot that Apple had was people who live outside of the Apple ecosystem."

"Stalking and stalkerware existed before AirTags, but Apple made it cheaper and easier than ever for abusers and attackers to track their targets," added Albert Fox Cahn, executive director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.

How has Apple responded?

When reached by Vice regarding the police reports, an Apple representative directed the outlet to a February company blog post, which outlined recent security updates.

In the post, Apple said incidents of AirTag misuse are "rare" but acknowledged that "each instance is one too many." It also claimed that it is working with safety groups and law enforcement to come up with ways to crack down on criminal misuse.

One idea has involved handing over the serial ID number of alleged perpetrators in certain instances.

"Every AirTag has a unique serial number, and paired AirTags are associated with an Apple ID. Apple can provide the paired account details in response to a subpoena or valid request from law enforcement," Apple said.

But critics warn by that time, it may already be too late for victims.