Air Tag shows wrong (phantom) location occasionally

[Noergeltiger]

I live in an inner city area and have a cat that is strolling around outside the most of the time. In order to keep track on her location, I put her a collar with an Air Tag holder. Since there are many people frequenting my area, the Air Tag works quite well, given the working principle behind it and the resulting limitations. Recently I noticed the Air Tag was located roughly 1.5 miles away from my location which is very unusual. I immediately checked for my cat and found her in front of my house 2 mins later with the Air Tag still in her collar. I fully understand the working principle of an Air Tag and that is why I cannot comprehend how it can happen at all that it was located at a wrong place but still somehow within a closer distance of 1.5 miles. I can tell 100% the Air Tag was not at the shown location and shortly after it showed again the correct location. I already read through all forum threads related to this subject but I still did not find anything which could give a proper explanation on this case.

 

[deeddawg]

Perfectly normal to see an offset location. As you know, there can be a lag between when a phone senses the AirTag and when the phone sends its location to Apple servers. If the phone has moved during that time you’ll see the later location.

My guess, for this extraordinary distance, is that the phone had poor signal, and thus was further away than normal when it regained connectivity and sent the location to the Find My servers.

or perhaps your cat is able to teleport.

 

[macfacts]

. Deleted, nothing important to see.

 

[Algr]

or perhaps your cat is able to teleport.

There is plenty of evidence that cats can do this.