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You might be surprised. It's an easy win for them to get success/completion/conviction figures up.
Absolutely, I recovered an expensive item last year using an AirTag and the police provided plenty of assistance. After the situation was resolved I expressed surprise to one officer that they were so interested in helping me, and he laughed and said that it was an attractive case because I was able to provide every detail about what was stolen, where it was at, and who was responsible.
 
He stole the safe, because it is easier to take it and break in later rather than risk having set off an alarm and teh police showing up while you are trying to open it. He had no idea what was inside until he got it home and opened it; in his mind it was "Safe = money = steal = open at home;" leaving out "=being tracked = busted"
So, the AirTag could only be detected after the safe was opened. Prior to that, it must have been a complete Faraday-cage shield for whatever the AirTag transmits.

Am I getting this right?
 
52 year old and thats all you can show for all those years, stealing? Worthless!
I'm in no way, shape, or form advocating that crime is acceptable, but judgment without all the information smacks of fascism.

Some people get kicked by life and society so hard that desperation sets in.

I'm not saying that's the case with this guy (some people really are just lazy, evil, etc.), but we shouldn't just assume it was someone with the same opportunities, mental faculties and "gifts" as "the rest of us".

One of my sons has a learning disability. His chances at being an attorney, engineer, medical doctor, etc. are orders of magnitude harder for him than my other three kids. For him, that leaves hard, unskilled labor. Thankfully, he has me. For now. It is one of the great challenges of my life to ensure he doesn't EVER get to the level of desperation where he has to steal. But I have my own challenges and I'm far from wealthy.

Just sayin'.
 
I'm in no way, shape, or form advocating that crime is acceptable, but judgment without all the information smacks of fascism.

Some people get kicked by life and society so hard that desperation sets in.

I'm not saying that's the case with this guy (some people really are just lazy, evil, etc.), but we shouldn't just assume it was someone with the same opportunities, mental faculties and "gifts" as "the rest of us".

One of my sons has a learning disability. His chances at being an attorney, engineer, medical doctor, etc. are orders of magnitude harder for him than my other three kids. For him, that leaves hard, unskilled labor. Thankfully, he has me. For now. It is one of the great challenges of my life to ensure he doesn't EVER get to the level of desperation where he has to steal. But I have my own challenges and I'm far from wealthy.

Just sayin'.
Just curious.

Will your other three kids be able to look out for him when you’re gone?
 
So, the AirTag could only be detected after the safe was opened. Prior to that, it must have been a complete Faraday-cage shield for whatever the AirTag transmits.

Am I getting this right?
That’s what it sounds like from the article.
 
... it must have been a complete Faraday-cage shield for whatever the AirTag transmits.

Am I getting this right?
Maybe. It depends on how tight the door fits and the wavelength of the radio waves. I have worked inside radio-shielded rooms and the door needs to be a knife type seal, where the door must be closed by lever action that forces the two parts of the seal together. Radio shield doors are a little bit like the doors on airliners.

With many safes, the door can rattle and there is a gap. If the gap is some fraction of the wavelength, energy can get in or out.

Finally, my safe has a plastic coating around the door and many safes have plastic bumpers so the door does not "clank" when slammed, and then EVERY safe I have seen is painted inside and out and the paint would certainly prevent electrical conduction. If the door is electrically isolated from the box, is is NOT a Faraday cadge.

That said, even a painted safe with a closed door that is not tight would strongly attenuate the signal. But on the other hand the signal only has to reach a nearby iPhone, it does not need to go very far and need not be very strong.

So I am not buying the "Faraday cadge" theory, unless someone tested this safe.
 
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Remember, just because you put an AirTag on your valuables does not mean the Police will be willing or able to do anything to get your valuables back should they be stolen.
Sometimes I wonder about this...
Even if you track your belongings to a place, would you risk getting them yourself?
About calling the police, I'm sure there'd be 1000 legal protocols that would somehow not make it easy to retrieve the stolen goods...
 
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The guy broke into locations, picked up and stole their property, took it home and enjoy himself with it. How is that not a clear case of intent and repeat offending such that it isn't first-degree burglary?!
Because it doesn't meet the definition of first degree burglary. You can google what that is. I did, and it most clearly doesn't.
 
If they were putting the AirTag in the safe, why did they need to put it in a stuffed animal? (So the thief would keep it if he got the safe open?)

And why didn't the thief's phone warned him about the AirTag? Not iPhone user? I hear the alert is coming to android as a native feature too.
Because the thief didn't have his time machine with him?
 
The guy broke into locations, picked up and stole their property, took it home and enjoy himself with it. How is that not a clear case of intent and repeat offending such that it isn't first-degree burglary?!
Is there proof that he did that, or was he just in possession of the goods after the fact?
 
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Gooooood job. $19 can allow anyone to do this and also just plain track and protect. Buy one, disconnect speaker in 20 seconds, and plant one in your car, too — foolish not to.
Why in the world would I want to track my car if it's stolen?? I hope its long gone in Mexico and hopefully disassembled by the time the insurance company cuts me a check for the new one. smh.
 
I'm in no way, shape, or form advocating that crime is acceptable, but judgment without all the information smacks of fascism.

Some people get kicked by life and society so hard that desperation sets in.

I'm not saying that's the case with this guy (some people really are just lazy, evil, etc.), but we shouldn't just assume it was someone with the same opportunities, mental faculties and "gifts" as "the rest of us".

One of my sons has a learning disability. His chances at being an attorney, engineer, medical doctor, etc. are orders of magnitude harder for him than my other three kids. For him, that leaves hard, unskilled labor. Thankfully, he has me. For now. It is one of the great challenges of my life to ensure he doesn't EVER get to the level of desperation where he has to steal. But I have my own challenges and I'm far from wealthy.

Just sayin'.
Thank you. I'm always shocked and dismayed at the number of people who jump to conclusions or condemnation based on a news story, a sound bite, a tik tok, etc. Making snap judgements without all the facts is just wrong. If people were more educated, discerning, and thoughtful, perhaps we wouldn't have so much hate and intolerance today.
 
Why in the world would I want to track my car if it's stolen?? I hope its long gone in Mexico and hopefully disassembled by the time the insurance company cuts me a check for the new one. smh.

It’s likely your insurance company would buy the parts back for pennies on the dollar from the Mexican chop-shop and use them to rebuild your car or repair someone else's. :)
 
A lot of folks don't think theft is such a big deal, but I'm tellin' ya, stealing is the lowest of the low, the dirtiest, even downright damnable crime! You know the old saying - if you can't steal it, rob it; if you can't rob it, kill for it - That's what I'm talkin' about. If you wanna permanently fix the theft problem, it's actually simple. Just send everyone who steals to the electric chair. What's that? Too many people? Well, what's the issue - let 'em line up.
So, you are at odds with thousands of years of western practical and moral philosophy. Then surely you will have no objection to using your own ethics and logic to justify the execution of aberrant personalities like yourself.
 
So, you are at odds with thousands of years of western practical and moral philosophy. Then surely you will have no objection to using your own ethics and logic to justify the execution of aberrant personalities like yourself.

People often say, those who escalate opinions to the extreme, they're usually referring to someone like you. Even though I don't need to care about your opinion, I do find it enjoyable to remind you that this is all about "what has been done". As for "what is thought", who cares? Oh, right. Lusting after your neighbor's wife, your boss's luxury car or mansion on a moral level, all of it should be condemned to hell, right?

Guess what, thank God for Jesus, or we'd all be damned.

But, since I'm not like you, I'm not someone who escalates opinions infinitely, I can make it clear that anyone who commits theft deserves the harshest punishment. That's my perspective. Why should those who commit theft be damned? I don't even need to tell you what the Bible says, it's none of my business whether you believe it or not. But I can assure you, you've definitely not seen the news of people who installed iron bars to prevent theft, only to get trapped and die in a fire. The root cause of all this is "preventing theft". Not to mention theft is akin to robbery, their freedom to commit crimes at will, stealing the fruit of other's labor, stealing time, causing even greater losses, even lives... Oh right, I forgot you were talking about morality, people like me who detest thieves, we must be morally bankrupt.

Isn't that interesting?
 
Shame these AirTags are way overpriced.
I understand a *higher single AirTag price, but about 129 Euro for a pack of 4, really...

* €39 for a single piece....hahaha, I know they where like € 28 before.

There will be a time that Apple will decline.....people, stop buying this way overpriced stuff.
 
The important part of the story, they went to the police and didn't go to the person's home themselves in an attempt to retrieve stolen property. As opposed to what Apple showed in their recent ad.

Stay safe everyone!
Before AirTags I chased my friend's stolen purse across SF using (early) Find My iPhone. Found it fine, but it was somewhere in a large tenement hotel that we were not about to go into and knock on doors. We did not bother with the police because they would have laughed at us. Today locating is a lot more precise, but I still would be surprised to get a favorable police response like the article describes.
 
A lot of folks don't think theft is such a big deal, but I'm tellin' ya, stealing is the lowest of the low, the dirtiest, even downright damnable crime! You know the old saying - if you can't steal it, rob it; if you can't rob it, kill for it - That's what I'm talkin' about. If you wanna permanently fix the theft problem, it's actually simple. Just send everyone who steals to the electric chair. What's that? Too many people? Well, what's the issue - let 'em line up.

Because harsh crimes have such a great track record to be eliminated by punishment right?
 
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52 year old and thats all you can show for all those years, stealing? Worthless!

Thieves occur everywhere and age doesn’t make one wiser necessarily. However I don’t know that person and am not concluding that’s all they have to show for, cause that’s just guessing.
 
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It’s likely your insurance company would buy the parts back for pennies on the dollar from the Mexican chop-shop and use them to rebuild your car or repair someone else's. :)
Maybe in some states. In California we have consumer protections that let me choose any repair shop, so I'm getting only factory-certified OEM parts ;)
 
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