U.K. couple steals back stolen car after tracking it down with Apple AirTag

An Apple AirTag actually did some major good for a West London couple who managed to recover their stolen Jaguar E-PACE — without much help from the police.

As reported by the BBC, the couple’s £46,000 (roughly $62,000 USD) SUV was taken from their home in early June. Fortunately, they’d stashed an AirTag inside. After reporting the theft, they handed over the real-time location data to the police, expecting a swift response.

It didn’t come. Despite the tracker placing the car just nine minutes away, officers failed to act with the urgency the couple had hoped for. So, they took matters into their own hands.

The AirTag led them to a nearby residential street where the Jaguar sat, parked and intact. Reclaiming it wasn’t as simple as turning the key; they had to prove ownership and work with the software provider to reactivate the vehicle’s immobilizer system.

According to the BBC, the police didn’t follow up until a week after the couple had already retrieved the car and notified them of the recovery.

This story is a lighter moment in the complicated landscape Apple cracked open with the launch of AirTags in 2021. Since then, the tracking discs have been at the center of serious privacy and safety concerns, including their use in stalking and domestic abuse cases. Apple says it has built in several safety features to address this.

The most significant is that if someone spends several hours near an unknown AirTag, they’ll get a notification alerting them to its presence, whether they’re using iOS or Android.