Son’s bike was stolen- Airtag removed and dumped

[lali]

Hi
How is this supposed to work?

Earlier this summer….

My son forgot his airtagged bike on a Friday night at the basketball court, came back home walking (3 min walk).

Spent the Saturday all day on a trip with friends. Woke up Sunday morning, where is my bike?

So we tracked it Sunday morning and it was 5 blocks away from my house. Knocked at the door of 8 houses, nothing fishy, nothing odd, no sign of the bike. Police asked around as well, the airtag location was so clear

The police officer said the thiefs hear the chirps from the airtags, rip them out and throw them in the gutter/ canal and this is likely where the airtag is.

What is the use of airtags alerting thieves that there is a tracker on the bikes?

Anyways maybe I am missing something. I l know my son was extremely late in remembering he did not have his bike, and the delay may have just done it

Thanks for reading!

 

[mckinney3]

I share your frustration. I have learned that the AirTAg is not really a Tracking Device for things like bikes and cars and things. The chirp and iPhone alerts are built in anti-stalking precautions and render AirTags kinda useless for purposes other than finding your car keys around the house.

Now one would hope that if you left your keys or dropped them on the trail that you would have some chance of finding them. Certainly the last location that YOU dropped when alerted is a pretty good clue. But when a car passes by and pings the Tag then the reported location is the location of the phone that pinged when it finally talks to the Apple Mothership NOT the location of the AirTAg. I have had an AirTAg reported .5 mile away because of this operational fact. And each car that passes will report a different location.

The AirTAg is designed to find a stationary object that you have left behind and it remains stationary. The crowd sourcing works for slow walkers but the moving car reality makes it impossible to find.

You also do not get a log or trail - just last reported. Now the TILE will give you a moving trail and it does not alert the carrier but the crowd sourcing possibilites are greatly reduced as the user base is so small compared to iPhone users. And TILE has the identical moving car issue as does the AirTAg.

Buy a TILE or AirTag to find your keys dropped in your back yard or locked in your trunk or left somewhere and is not moving with the thief or pinged by a moving car so manage your expectations for any other use.

 

[JPack]

What is the use of airtags alerting thieves that there is a tracker on the bikes?

AirTags were never designed for tracking stolen items. There is no way for Apple to determine if AirTags are being used maliciously for unwanted tracking. Apple is privacy focused and their products are designed with that in mind.

 

[fischersd]

You should have removed the speaker if you're using this for theft protection - BUT - the thieves will still get "an unknown airtag is moving with you" notifications if they have an iPhone. (me, I like to think most bike thieves likely use android devices) *shrug*

These only work for theft protection in a very short window - you have to be mindful of where your things are, so you can move quickly to retrieve them before the anti-stalking features kick in.

I do suspect that Apple has given a different classification / use case to those OEMs that are building find-my into devices however - as that would be the primary use case - so bicycle manufacturers (and eventually automotive "head unit" makers) will be treated differently than the highly transportable, easily pocketable AirTags.

 

[rjtiedeman]

May be good you didn’t find the thief and the bike. Chances are it would have been a violent encounter.

 

[boss.king]

Airtags aren't designed to help you find stolen stuff, they're for finding things you misplace or reminding you about things you left behind. It's a small but important difference.

EDIT: Despite me saying that, I do actually plan to put an AirTag or Chipolo One on my bike in the near future. You can get little mounting brackets that hide them under your water bottle and make them a lot harder to find, let alone remove. And harder again if you use security screws to mount it.

I know how frustrating it can be having a bike stolen so I hope I didn’t come off as being condescending earlier. Best of luck with the future bike tracking.

 

[antiprotest]

Apple says that Airtags are not meant to track stolen items, pets, or children, although you can try to use them that way. They are meant to track your own items, but not for theft prevention purposes.

 

[Feek]

Anyways maybe I am missing something.

Incorrect use of an AirTag, surprised it didn't work as required but worked exactly as intended.

Nothing to see here, move along.

 

[Solomani]

I share your frustration. I have learned that the AirTAg is not really a Tracking Device for things like bikes and cars and things. The chirp and iPhone alerts are built in anti-stalking precautions and render AirTags kinda useless for purposes other than finding your car keys around the house.

Can't the chirping be disabled?

(still undecided if I'll ever use AirTags)

 

[MacRazySwe]

Sucks to hear what happened. I've seen these AirTag compatible valves from MucOff. This is probably the best implementation of AirTag bike tracking I've seen to date, as the thief will be forced to remove the tire from the rim (i.e completely deflating it).

Stealth Tubeless Tag Holder

Protect your pride and joy! The Muc-Off Tubeless Tag Holder offers a discreet way to install a tracker inside your rear tubeless bicycle tyre in conjunction with our All-New Tubeless Valves (will also work with our V1 presta valves), meaning you can track down your bike in the event of theft and...

muc-off.com

Not sure how they hold up for more aggressive riding however, would be good to know.

 

[beanbaguk]

Frankly, AirTags and anything else on the Find My Network is a waste of time. Why create this incredible network if it cannot be used? The "Privacy" features just ruin what is most definitely one of the best features of the AirTag and make them near pointless.

After testing them throughout my home, they are not even that great at finding items as the speaker is so weak, you can barely hear it. The signal is also very weak when compared to Tile devices too (my only comparison). We live in an old home built in the 1950s with meter-thick walls and you never get a signal so unless you are in the same room as the device, it's pointless. Tile manages to get through at least one of the walls so you have a bit of a fighting chance to find it!

I'm switching back to Tile, and as a testament to this, my wife's car keys were stolen last week. They were found as a result of the Tile attached to the keys. Had it been an AirTag as I regretfully suggested before, the thief would have been alerted and even informed they were being tracked. Pointless.

 

[beanbaguk]

Sucks to hear what happened. I've seen these AirTag compatible valves from MucOff. This is probably the best implementation of AirTag bike tracking I've seen to date, as the thief will be forced to remove the tire from the rim (i.e completely deflating it).

Stealth Tubeless Tag Holder

Protect your pride and joy! The Muc-Off Tubeless Tag Holder offers a discreet way to install a tracker inside your rear tubeless bicycle tyre in conjunction with our All-New Tubeless Valves (will also work with our V1 presta valves), meaning you can track down your bike in the event of theft and...

muc-off.com

Not sure how they hold up for more aggressive riding however, would be good to know.

Pointless! The tag will only tell the thief they are being tracked! That's not what you want

 

[MacRazySwe]

Pointless! The tag will only tell the thief they are being tracked! That's not what you want

Sure, but we were discussing AirTags, not Tile. I maintain that this is the best implementation of bike tracking using AirTags. Can’t speak for Tile.

Even if they were to find the AirTag, they would have the option of a) Removing the rear wheel entirely, rendering the bike useless, or b) Emptying the tire completely to get rid of the tag, not exactly a 2 min job. Both will lead to a bike they cannot get away with. Knowing they are being tracked, I suspect there is a good chance they dump the bike.

 

[deeddawg]

Can't the chirping be disabled?

(still undecided if I'll ever use AirTags)

Yes, and there are various videos online for how to disassemble them to remove the magnet inside which thus nearly silences the device.

Still doesn't prevent the alert to the thief after a while if they're using an iphone, but if they're on android they won't be alerted.

Sure, but we were discussing AirTags, not Tile. I maintain that this is the best implementation of bike tracking using AirTags. Can’t speak for Tile.

Even if they were to find the AirTag, they would have the option of a) Removing the rear wheel entirely, rendering the bike useless, or b) Emptying the tire completely to get rid of the tag, not exactly a 2 min job. Both will lead to a bike they cannot get away with. Knowing they are being tracked, I suspect there is a good chance they dump the bike.

Yep - I figure if it is sufficiently difficult to locate and remove the airtag then there's an increased chance the thief will ditch the bike. Airtags are cheap enough that IMHO it's worth taking a chance even if it's not the intended use case.

 

[Solomani]

A better "deterrent" (note I said better, not perfect) would be what I use on my bike.

A small motion/vibration alarm that I attach to the underside of the bike, or hide beneath a bike rack, pannier, etc. The moment the thief moves, shakes, lifts, tilts the bike.... the alarm screams louder than some car alarms. I've found these affordable and as loud as 113 decibels... enough to wake up the entire neighborhood on a quiet morning, or quiet evening.

How do they deter the thief? They basically alert everyone (maybe even you) in the vicinity that your bike is being stolen/moved/lifted.

Is it perfect? Of course not. A determined criminal is going to ride off with your bike, regardless of the risk of being caught, reported, or witnessed by curious onlookers.

But at less than $20, they are an affordable deterrent. Several on Amazon.

 

[ChrisA]

The police officer said the thiefs hear the chirps from the airtags, rip them out and throw them in the gutter/ canal and this is likely where the airtag is.

What is the use of airtags alerting thieves that there is a tracker on the bikes?

Anyways maybe I am missing something...

AirTags are NOT anti theft devices, pain and simple. That is not their purpose. They are for recovering LOST items.

The AirTag will alert a thief that he is being tracked and as said will chirp.

If you are buying these as anti-theft devices, you are buying the wrong product. Buy a real GPS tracker.

 

[perezr10]

Yeah, AirTags are for fishing your keys from in between the couch cushions.

 

[macphoto861]

I understand the concern about AirTags being used to stalk people, and I also can see the potential for problems to develop when people try to track down their stolen items. But aiding in the capturing of thieves and recovery of stolen things would be a great use for this product.

Here's what I wish Apple would do... allow AirTags to be put into a "Law Enforcement" mode upon activation, that would not produce any beeps or "An AirTag is Following You" notifications, but also would not provide a precise location to the owner. If your car, bike, etc. were stolen, the police would have the ability to scan a QR code on your iPhone that would give THEM the ability to accurately track the AirTag (for the length of time specified by you) through a special app only available to verified law enforcement agencies, and meanwhile the thief would not be clued in as to the presence of a tracker so that they could simply remove it.

Another alternative would be to have any AirTag automatically shift to this "Law Enforcement" mode when it was seen as following a non-owner... IOW, rather than giving a notification and starting to beep (which would alert the thief), it would merely shift to only being able to show a general location (eliminating the ability to effectively stalk someone), with the exact location only available to police (if you granted such access).

 

[edfoo]

Here's what I wish Apple would do... allow AirTags to be put into a "Law Enforcement" mode upon activation

And how much cost do you think this Law Enforcement mode is going to cost Apple, the local police department and you? It sounds like a very complicated and expensive implementation. Imagine your local police department have to start searching for lost keys, bikes and cars with all these AirTags blinking in their office PC. I think they should rather spend their limited time and resource in solving other crime. Also Apple will probably have to increase the price of AirTags by three fold.

As for just giving general location rather precise location, that will just not be accurate enough to retrieve your items. As of current situation some times it is already hard to find your lost items, if to make it just general location you will have a very hard time locating your items.

 

[macphoto861]

And how much cost do you think this Law Enforcement mode is going to cost Apple, the local police department and you? It sounds like a very complicated and expensive implementation. Imagine your local police department have to start searching for lost keys, bikes and cars with all these AirTags blinking in their office PC. I think they should rather spend their limited time and resource in solving other crime. Also Apple will probably have to increase the price of AirTags by three fold.

It wouldn't have to be expensive... and I think the increase in the usefulness of AirTags would help them sell more. I'm not envisioning some poor desk-bound officer sitting in front of a computer with thousands of AirTags being displayed on their screen, and certainly not for helping to find inexpensive items (why would the police be called to locate "lost keys" anyway?). But an individual officer who is responding to a case of a stolen car (or bike, as was the case with the OP here) could see the location of that one particular tagged item, go find it, and hopefully arrest the thief. I think that's a worthwhile use of their time, both from the perspective of returning stolen property to its owners, and taking criminals off the streets.

As for just giving general location rather precise location, that will just not be accurate enough to retrieve your items. As of current situation some times it is already hard to find your lost items, if to make it just general location you will have a very hard time locating your items.

But the police officer WOULD have the precise location... the AirTag's owner wouldn't (which is helpful both in terms of keeping people safe from "stalking", and preventing the owners of stolen property from confronting potentially dangerous criminals directly).

 

[Apleeseed84]

It’s kind of funny how everyone bought AirTags for “theft” prevention or mitigation and talked bad about Tile but tile’s do have insurance that does cover theft and loss up to $1,000, granted it’s not free but it comes with their premium membership but still, just fyi for the next future purchase that would had helped getting you a bike had you not recovered it!

I’m sure apple will think of covering their AirTags in the future since they implemented theft and loss in AppleCare so who knows 🤷

I find them annoying because my girlfriend has AirTags and since we live together I will always get pop ups about them and seeing where they have been all the time

 

[edfoo]

It wouldn't have to be expensive... and I think the increase in the usefulness of AirTags would help them sell more. I'm not envisioning some poor desk-bound officer sitting in front of a computer with thousands of AirTags being displayed on their screen, and certainly not for helping to find inexpensive items (why would the police be called to locate "lost keys" anyway?). But an individual officer who is responding to a case of a stolen car (or bike, as was the case with the OP here) could see the location of that one particular tagged item, go find it, and hopefully arrest the thief. I think that's a worthwhile use of their time, both from the perspective of returning stolen property to its owners, and taking criminals off the streets.

But the police officer WOULD have the precise location... the AirTag's owner wouldn't (which is helpful both in terms of keeping people safe from "stalking", and preventing the owners of stolen property from confronting potentially dangerous criminals directly).

You don't think the infrastructure of setting this up and requiring the police involvement won't be expensive? Most police officers (as far as I know where I live) are often stretched to the limit, they don't even have time to deal with all the stolen cars, much less stolen bikes. And why would they just cater for Apple users with AirTags, but not Android users (for example Samsung users with their SmartTags) or Tile users? Do you get what I mean here? It's very easy for you to sit at home and ask for all these service to be provided to you for free, but someone or some organisation need to do the hard work in the background and it costs lots of money. Are you prepared to pay for this service?

 

[macphoto861]

You don't think the infrastructure of setting this up and requiring the police involvement won't be expensive? Most police officers (as far as I know where I live) are often stretched to the limit, they don't even have time to deal with all the stolen cars, much less stolen bikes. And why would they just cater for Apple users with AirTags, but not Android users (for example Samsung users with their SmartTags) or Tile users? Do you get what I mean here? It's very easy for you to sit at home and ask for all these service to be provided to you for free, but someone or some organisation need to do the hard work in the background and it costs lots of money. Are you prepared to pay for this service?

Admittedly as a layperson, it's easy to underestimate the effort required to implement something like this, but most of it would be on Apple's end, which wouldn't even be a rounding error to them (and would likely be compensated for by an increase in AirTag sales, since the device would be more useful to people). Once the initial development was done, the main ongoing expense would be some sort of administrative mechanism to verify police departments and grant access (which I would envision as a one-time thing per department, not calling Apple every time they want to track a stolen car).

And, of course, Tile and Samsung would be free to start a program like this too.

I understand if a big city police department doesn't have the resources to chase down a kid's $100 stolen bike, but smaller towns probably would (the OP indicated that police were involved in his case). For motor vehicles though, I think towns and cities of all sizes absolutely would welcome a way to accurately and instantly find the location of the stolen vehicle, recovering it and hopefully arresting the thief.

From their perspective, it would be very similar to LoJack, which has been in widespread use among police departments for a long time... if that system is not considered a budget-busting, unjustifiable use of resources, why would an AirTag-based vehicle theft protection system be any different?

 

[edfoo]

From their perspective, it would be very similar to LoJack, which has been in widespread use among police departments for a long time... if that system is not considered a budget-busting, unjustifiable use of resources, why would an AirTag-based vehicle theft protection system be any different?

Which country are you from? USA I assume? I'm in Australia so never heard of this LoJack service. Again are you presuming this implementation can be easily and cheaply done in USA only, and not in other countries around the world especially developing countries?

 

[macphoto861]

Which country are you from? USA I assume? I'm in Australia so never heard of this LoJack service. Again are you presuming this implementation can be easily and cheaply done in USA only, and not in other countries around the world especially developing countries?

Yes, USA... LoJack has been around for a few decades, I think. And no, I wasn't really thinking of other countries for this, not sure how easy it would be for them (but that alone is not a reason to not do it in the USA).