The stolen items were recovered by the tool thieves.
A Northern Virginia carpenter who was fed up with a night of tool theft affixed air tags to his tools, leading police to a series of storage facilities filled with stolen goods.
An unnamed carpenter twice woke up in the early morning to find his van vandalized and thousands of dollars worth of tools stolen from the vehicle. He decided that if it were the third time he would catch the thief.
He purchased a series of AirTags and planted them on some large tools that had not yet been stolen.
On January 22nd, the thieves were back. Between the three break-ins, a total of 50 tools were stolen from the man, including some with planted AirTags.
After discovering the theft, the man grabbed his iPhone and chased the thief around the suburbs of the DC metro area. He eventually traced the stolen tools to a storage facility in nearby Howard County.
The person didn't solve the problem on his own like other people did. Instead, they took action by calling the police, obtained a search warrant, and raided the storage unit.
Police didn't just find the man's tools. Instead, they found signs of a much larger operation.
Eventually, information from that one locker led police to 12 storage locations. More than 15,000 tools worth up to $5 million were found throughout the storage area. All of the tools are believed to have been stolen from northern Virginia and parts of Pennsylvania.
“The scope of the investigation is enormous and ongoing,” Howard County Police Chief Gregory Der said. washington post “We believe the tools were stolen from retail stores, businesses, vehicles, residential properties and construction sites,” a description of the discovery released on May 31 said.
To date, none of the thieves have been arrested, Chief Der admitted. Police say they are investigating several suspects and expect charges to be filed soon.
The carpenter who installed the air tags got about six of the stolen tools back. Police have identified around 80 victims of the serial thefts, and in mid-May they launched a website where potential victims could enter their data to retrieve their tools.
Apple's AirTags have been the center of many stories about theft and recovery. Stolen vehicles seem to be the most common recovery, followed by luggage. However, it has also been used to stalk victims.
Apple has since updated the firmware for AirTags to help identify if an AirTag has been unintentionally installed on someone or their property. And AirTag surveillance software is available for Android as well as iPhone.