Having your car stolen hurts. In the heart and in the pocket. Having an entire Porsche Macan stolen from your home and doorstep, even more so. This is what happened to a Londoner who almost everything went wronggiven that the vehicle’s anti-theft system has broken down, which is apparently designed to receive real-time alerts if a thief tries to take it.
And the “almost” is because something went well. The fundamental element in these cases: the Apple AirTag. It’s not a perfect device and we’ll talk about that as well, but fortunately for the Porsche Macan driver, its story doesn’t fall into those specific occasions in which the Apple accessory is erratic.
Porsche + AirTag = goodbye theft
Paying (at least) 80,000 dollars for a car is within the reach of few people, but even for those who can afford it, it’s not an amount they really like to lose. And that’s what happened to David, a Londoner who took advantage of a Porsche photo to tell the story of how he lost his precious Porsche Macan. Or rather, they stole it.
He doesn’t go into too much detail about what it was, but it is. Thieves managed to bypass Porsche’s security systemwhich should have sent you a notification informing you of the attempted theft. However, this did not happen and given the doubts of other forum users, David answered some questions about it, coming to the conclusion that they may have taken advantage of the fact that their vehicle was running on a key.
When he finally found the car, he discovered that it had the license plate of another vehicle in the same range. This made him suspect that the thieves may have tried to modify other keys until they managed to open it.
And the fact is that in the end he found it, and like on so many other occasions, it was thanks to an AirTag. Apple’s tracking accessories were key to being able to locate the intact car across town at 10 a.m. the next day.
Recovering a car using AirTag is a trend, but it also gives false positives
There are many success stories of AirTags for locating lost and stolen items. Regarding cars specifically, there seems to be a certain fashion. We’ve already heard the story of a man who found his car full of drugs in the early morning, another who had a very expensive Ferrari stolen and even a case in which there was a double theft of a Range Rover.
This speaks well of the AirTag, even if there is also small print as an Applesfera veteran like Miguel López could already see. These accessories are not GPS, but require the presence of another Apple device nearby to send its location to the servers so that its owner can see it from the “Search” application.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be a device from the same owner that passes near the AirTag. If the accessory is in the middle of a street and someone within 200 meters with an iPhone walks by, the AirTag will use it as a beacon to send their location. And all this in private without that person knowing that their cell phone was used for this purpose and that the owner of the AirTag does not know of the existence of this iPhone either.
AirTags can also give false positives about their location if they haven’t found an Apple device nearby in a while.
The network of Apple devices is large and in large cities it is generally relatively easy to cross paths. However, in small towns this does not happen. AND If the AirTag does not have an Apple device nearby, it will not change positionthus avoiding its location and also offering false positives like those reported by Miguel López. In his case, it seemed like his car was stolen because he received a notification that the AirTag was far away. In reality, he was still in the same place, but the last time the accessory connected to send his location had been hours ago and in the middle of the road.
It is therefore good to know where to hide an AirTag and it is clear that it can be effective in the event of theft, but you should not trust it too much. After all, it has that limitation in its functioning which may end up leading to the loss of a car or any other item. sine le.
Ported image | Wikimedia Commons
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