AirTags, GPS trackers can help car thieves. Here’s how to find them

Canadians need to be aware thieves are using GPS tracking devices like Apple AirTags to steal vehicles, an anti-theft advocate said.

“Thieves are … basically walking around, targeting vehicles, putting a tracking device on that vehicle and then following it in the wee hours of the morning and then stealing that vehicle,” Bryan Gast said.

Gast, a vice-president at Équité Association, an organization that fights insurance crime, spoke to Global News at a press conference in Montreal Wednesday where Ontario and Quebec police announced they had recovered nearly 600 stolen cars.

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“Auto theft has reached crisis levels in Canada,” he said during the press conference.

Auto thefts in Canada have skyrocketed in recent years, rising 50 per cent in Quebec and nearly as much in Ontario in 2022. A car is stolen every 40 minutes in Toronto, according to Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw.

Ontario police previously said thieves were using the Apple devices to identify and track and steal high-end cars.

Police in Burlington, Vt., announced last week that residents were finding AirTags and other GPS tracking devices on vehicles returning from Montreal.

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Vehicle owners have also used the devices to track their stolen autos. In one case, the device helped Toronto police recover a stolen SUV, while in Texas an owner tracking their stolen truck resulted in the theft suspect getting shot.

When asked on Wednesday, Ontario Provincial Police Deputy Commissioner Marty Kearns said he couldn’t comment on how many of the nearly 600 cars had been stolen with tracking devices like AirTags because police are still investigating.

Apple AirTags have previously come under scrutiny for allegedly being used to stalk women and other individuals.

Last year the OPP arrested a 19-year-old man and charged him with harassment after a woman was repeatedly followed and watched in Trenton, Ont. Police told Global News the suspect hid the tracking devices in a “hard to reach” area in the complainant’s vehicle.

Recently a woman in New Brunswick told Global News she was “uncomfortable and worried” after finding an AirTag that didn’t belong to her in her purse after she was at a nightclub.

Dozens of people who claim that stalkers are using AirTags to track them are suing the tech giant in the United States. A judge denied Apple’s motion to dismiss the suit in March.

Apple declined to provide new comment on these matters when contacted Wednesday.

However, in a February 2022 statement, the company said AirTag users see a message warning them that using the device to track someone without that person’s consent is a crime. The tech giant said AirTags are “designed to be detected by victims” and that law enforcement can request identifying information about the owner of the AirTag.

Ontario police previously told Global News that iPhone users will receive a notification if an AirTag is nearby while Android users can download an app called Tracker Detect to receive the same alert.

Tracker Detect can help you find the device by playing a sound to help find it.

A prior OPP media release also said “equipping your vehicle with your own AirTag could assist police in locating your vehicle if it was ever stolen.”

“If a homeowner or a vehicle owner has their vehicle stolen and there is an AirTag in the vehicle and they are notified,” Kearns said on Wednesday, “then we would request they call the police service of jurisdiction.”

Gast pointed to apps like Tracker Detector and AirGuard that can detect tracking devices. He also said Canadians could use vehicle tracking services, once a vehicle is reported stolen, to follow their stolen car or truck.

Global News asked Gast about cases like Robert Arndt, who tracked his stolen truck to Montreal but says RCMP and local police won’t help him get it back.

While it’s not a foolproof solution, Gast said AirTags used by owners can still help “minimize” the risks.

He also said people tracking their own stolen vehicles should report them to police but never put themselves in harm’s way trying to get the vehicle back themselves.

— with files from Global News’ Kalina Laframboise, Felicia Parrillo, Isaac Cullen and Sarah Do Couto and The Associated Press