Are the urban legends of car thieves using AirTags becoming reality?
John Nelson from Novi, Michigan claims someone put a tracking device on his Dodge Charger 392. The assumed intention of those who placed the tracker on his Mopar muscle car was to see where it was parked for the night, then to steal it. We’ve heard urban legends of this happening; however, this is the first news story of an actual incident we’ve been able to track down.
Check out a 39-car barn find here.
According to Nelson, he took his Charger to Great Lakes Crossing during the Christmas season to do some shopping. Then he drove to Warren and Berkley, then back to Novi before leaving again to visit a friend in Northville. When he left the friend’s house, his iPhone alerted him to the presence of an unknown AirTag which had been tracking his movements.
When Nelson tapped on the notification, a map with a dotted red line showed everywhere he had driven that day. In other words, someone had placed it on his muscle car while he was doing the shopping. There was an option to make the tracker emit a sound so he could find it, but with the alarm going off Nelson couldn’t figure out where it was on his Dodge.
Frustrated that he couldn’t remove the AirTag from his car, Nelson turned to a local automotive enthusiasts group for help. One friend tried finding it but was also unsuccessful. Nelson took the Mopar to a service center twice before one of the employees finally found the tracker, which was in the spare tire well. Since the spare is stored in the bottom of the locked trunk, that seemed like an impossible place for someone to reach.
The conclusion made was that whoever placed the AirTag in Nelson’s car unscrewed a plate on the undercarriage, allowing them to drop the AirTag into the spare tire area. Nelson was amazed the thieves didn’t set off the aftermarket security system on his Mopar, which he says is so sensitive “if you breathe on it the wrong way, it goes off.”
We’ve heard of thieves placing trackers on high-end classic cars while they’re parked at meets or shows, that way they know where the car is stored later. However, until now we hadn’t found anything more than rumors that thieves are using Apple AirTags to track cars they want to steal later. The fact these thieves seem to have found a way to sneak the tracker into the trunk of Dodge Chargers is concerning, but we can’t confirm any of this story is true. If you own a modern Charger, this might be something to look into or at least keep in mind.
Source: C and G News
