A Southern California woman who was fed up with her packages being stolen from her mailbox sent an Apple AirTag to the address and cleverly tracked down the suspected thief, police said.
By the time the woman came up with the idea, she had already had several items stolen from her mailbox at the Los Alamos post office, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday. Apple’s $29 AirTags have become popular items since their release in 2021, helping users keep track of the location of everything from lost keys to wallets and luggage.
On Monday morning, sheriff’s deputies were called to the post office, where the woman told officers that her mail had been stolen again – including the package containing the AirTag.
Police tracked the AirTag to a block in Santa Maria, about 16 miles from the post office, and arrested two suspects – a 27-year-old Santa Maria woman and a 37-year-old Riverside man.
They found the package containing the AirTag in the victim’s mail, as well as items believed to have been stolen from more than a dozen other people. The woman declined to reveal her identity, the sheriff’s office said.
The two suspects were booked into jail for possession of checks with intent to defraud, conspiracy, and identity and credit card theft. The 37-year-old was also charged with burglary and several other theft offenses out of Riverside County.
The sheriff’s office commended the mail theft victim for contacting authorities so they could arrest the suspects instead of trying to contact them herself.
