Davayne Arrington, a burglary victim, decided to catch the thief himself after he discovered someone had stolen his car from his home in San Antonio’s Leon Valley. Opening Find Me, he saw that one of the AirPods taken was apparently parked at a travel stop on Interstate 35. After traveling to the stop and finding an SUV with five people in it, Arrington called the police for help.
That’s when a member of the group woke up and ran out of the SUV. The man said he also subdued one of the suspects after seeing him reach for a gun in his waistband.
San Antonio police then showed up and arrested four of the fleeing suspects. A fifth took off in an SUV, but police stopped the chase after the driver sped up to about 100 mph.
The arrest led to Arrington getting his AirPods back, and police eventually found his stolen car elsewhere and recovered other stolen property believed to have been stolen in a series of serial auto burglaries that occurred in the area the same night.
Find My has been used several times to help with crimes and emergencies, and while many have been related to AirTag trackers, a number have involved other items, such as AirPods.
In December, Find My was used to track AirPods stolen from a hotel room by an employee, and in November, a New Hampshire man tracked his stolen car, which was stolen after he left it one morning.
Not all tracking stories involving stolen AirPods have been successful. In May, four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel used Find My to chase down a bag thief, but his plan failed after the thief found and disposed of the AirPods as he fled.
