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Walking the dog on Friday morning last week and noticed a small car parked diagonally behind a BMW 3 series saloon half blocking the road, with 2 blokes standing about beside them. As I was passing they asked if I knew who owned the BMW but I didn’t recognise it. Turns out his stolen eBike is in the back of the car having been taken from his garage the previous night. He’d fitted an AirTag inside the motor and tracked it to about 50m away, then it narrowed in on the car, using his to lock it in.
He’d called the Police with little joy so I said I’d do the same explaining local concerned resident had noticed a strangely parked car with dodgy blokes milling about… Was on 101 for ages, then called 999. Operator said they’d get a car to us and about 20 minutes later they turn up.
Front offside tyre was flat and the car was a bit of a state but you could see the bike on the back seat through the privacy glass, as well as another pair of wheels and a big black pair of burglar gloves. The Police said the car wasn’t registered anywhere nearby, but it was insured at an address 2 streets away and the keeper has previous... They then let all the tyres down and headed round to get the keys, presumably giving the owner an option of keys or broken window.
Dude gets his bike back, I’m guessing the suspect denied it all having bought it in the pub/Gumtree etc. Car was gone the next day.
This was on the edge of Brighton. Bike was taken from Peacehaven direction approx 7 miles away.
Moral of the story; AirTags work!
Moral of the story; AirTags work!
They do, unless the thief has an iPhone, then the anti-stalker mechanism will kick in and let them know an air tag is following them...
Well for £30 it's not a bad cost should some skip-rat lift your ride and it work. If not, what's £30 when a few grand has left the building?
If not, what’s £30 when a few grand has left the building?
Agree, better than nothing but not fool proof.
Waiting for somebody to invent a gps tracker with air-tag battery life that can be hidden inside a handlebar or a seat tube and still work.
Ooo - just had an idea, what if all those fancy AXS / DI2 bluetooth components worked like an AirTag?
They do, unless the thief has an iPhone, then the anti-stalker mechanism will kick in and let them know an air tag is following them…
How sensitive is it though? And how long do they have to be together for?
I’ve not looked in to them at all but there must be a bit of a lag otherwise you’d constantly be getting falsely pung cause somebodies sitting next to you on the train with an AirTag on their house keys etc?
The AirTag has to be away from the registered owner and found travelling with you for a period before you are notified.
Aye, and in this case if the car the air tag was in is 2 streets away from the new phone, then presumably that ping won't work.
Wasn't there someone on here flogging a 'fork-bung' device to enable mounting an AirTag on your bike?
I remember an eBay link but I can't find it now :o(
Found it :o)
I've just bought a new full-sus' bike and this seems like a sensible investment right now.
I know it’s not perfect but after all the discussion about this on here & elsewhere I thought people would be interested in a real world example of it actually working.
I can see myself investing in a couple of these now.
I know it’s not perfect but after all the discussion about this on here & elsewhere I thought people would be interested in a real world example of it actually working.
I agree Pauly, the reasons against about it giving away it's position, after a fair amount of time IIRC, are akin to not locking your front door because criminals go equipped with lock picks. (maybe not entirely, but it's the best analogy I can come up with right now)
How sensitive is it though? And how long do they have to be together for?
I took my wife’s for a walk with the dog the other day, she had been away already for a couple of days. I was out for maybe an hour and in that time it didn’t warn me, it was once I got home that a message and a map popped up on the phone.
I’ll try again and pay more attention to the time at some point.
I’ve just put one (with speaker disabled) on my bike under the bottle cage in a little plastic holder. Yes it’s not totally hidden but for £30 it might just get my bike back. Depending on where / who’s nicked it if they get an alert in the phone there’s a reasonable chance they’ll just dump the bike (or obviously the the AirTag).
Interesting to hear a real world example of these actually working and good to see the police actually turning up.
Muc-Off are now doing air tag holder valves for a fairly discrete location.