Traveler Uses AirTag to Track Stolen MacBook to Brussels Theft Ring

A European theft ring has been busted, thanks to a traveler who used an AirTag and his iPhone’s Find My app to track the bag that contained his stolen MacBook and passport. Once police were notified they made an arrest within 24 hours.

As reported by AppleInsider, former Google employee Tony Aube was traveling in Brussels, Belgium, and looking to catch a flight back home to Canada when his backpack was stolen at the train station.

Aube didn’t want to abandon the other luggage with him to pursue the thieves. However, he was able to track his purloined MacBook and bag, thanks to the AirTag he had placed in it, using the Find My app to track the movement of the stolen laptop.

Unfortunately, the thieves eventually ditched the AirTag, but he was able to locate the MacBook at around midnight that night. While Aube contacted authorities, they couldn’t move on the tip as the location was in an apartment building and wasn’t precise enough to identify a specific apartment the bag was in.

The next morning, Aube saw that his MacBook had moved to a different location. Since he was stranded for the weekend in Brussels while waiting to get a replacement passport, he decided to do a little investigating of his own.

Aube went to the second location and hung out, waiting to see if anyone entered or left. After five hours of waiting, he saw thieves leaving the house. Wisely, Aube did not confront the bad guys. Instead, he followed them for three hours.

The first location the bad actors visited happened to be the first location that Aube initially saw come up in the Find My app after his bag was stolen. The thieves also visited a local computer store where they sold their stolen items.

Aube first sent the information he had learned, as well as photos, to the police, then went back to the house where the MacBook was sitting, calling the police once again.

When the thieves returned to the house six hours later, Aube contacted the police, which resulted in the arrest of the alleged thieves and the return of his MacBook and bag.

The crooks turned out to be members of a “huge organized theft network,” and had hundreds of stolen devices in their possession. The thieves had tried to foil tracking systems by wrapping their purloined devices in aluminum foil.

Aube claims that had police not finally taken action, he would’ve tried to fly his drone through an open window in the house to take photographs.

Police strongly advise users of AirTags and other tracking devices not to pursue or confront bad guys by tracking a stolen item via the tracker, as it could result in injury or worse. At least one case where a user pursued a theft resulted in death, as in March, a Texas man tracked his stolen truck, shooting and killing the alleged vehicle thief.