An armed robbery took place at a store in the 100 block of Northwest Broadway in Portland, Oregon, USA, not long ago. The suspect demanded money from the store's staff at gunpoint and took the victim's cell phone and wallet. After the crime, police tracked the cell phone and located the suspect's hideout in the area of Southwest 3rd Avenue and Southwest Pine Street.
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After reviewing surveillance, police found that the suspect had entered the hotel, Embassy Suites Hotel, and then left. Later in the evening, the hotel staff informed the police that the suspect had returned to the hotel and the police planned to make an arrest there.
Just as police attempted to approach the suspect inside the hotel, he disappeared from the hotel and the fire alarm was activated shortly thereafter. During the subsequent search, police found a fake handgun in the fire escape and a guest advised that items he had left in the room had been taken.
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The suspect who escaped capture made it look like the police were going to be bottlenecked in their case, but to their surprise, the suspect began to 'expose himself', and the reason was the backpack he stole. The owner of the backpack told police that the 'unique' backpack had an AirTag attached to it.
So, following this smart tracker in the backpack, police found the suspect with the backpack somewhere in North Portland, and although he escaped again when attempting to make an arrest, he was eventually tracked back to the 5800 block of North Minnesota Avenue, where he was successfully apprehended. Following his arrest, the suspect, Justin Johnston, was charged with second-degree robbery and first-degree burglary.
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The arrest process from the hotel seemed to have a lot of twists and turns, but thanks to the AirTag in the backpack, the police were able to quickly locate the suspect. In fact, this is not the first time that AirTag has been used by the police to "make a difference" in a case, as the police have also used AirTag's location function to recover a stolen vehicle.
On top of that, a few months ago Graham Tait had about $7,000 worth of items, including camera equipment, stolen while on vacation in Australia. He was able to recover the items after reporting them to the police, as he had an AirTag in the backpack that contained them.
▲ Image via: AppleInsider
Apple AirTag, a compact smart tracker, was originally designed to enable users to use it with Apple's 'Find My' feature to better manage and locate their belongings, but the product's tracking capabilities have also become a double-edged sword since its launch.
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Although the police can use it to get information on the location of suspects or items involved in a crime, there have been many cases of car theft, tracking, and surveillance by criminals using AirTag. Therefore, it has become imperative to combat such illegal tracking.
In response, Apple has also prepared a series of updates for AirTag, implementing features such as allowing users to more easily discover the presence of unknown AirTags around them. On the other hand, more than a dozen states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Jersey also have bills or norms for electronic tracking.
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AirTag can sometimes be used as an 'accomplice', but there is no right or wrong with technology, it's the people with the wrong intentions that are at fault. Hopefully, with more restrictions and anti-tracking measures, AirTag will be able to do its 'job' of managing and finding items for its owner.