A Toronto man tracked his stolen SUV more than 6,800 miles across the globe to a used car lot in the Middle East using Apple AirTag devices hidden inside the vehicle.
The man and his wife returned to their home from a vacation on the night of Aug. 7 and found that someone had broken into and tried to steal his 2022 GMC Yukon XL from his driveway, CBC News reported.
The steering wheel, which had an anti-theft lock in place, was bent forward and the seat was pushed back.
After eating a quick dinner, he went back outside 45 minutes later and the car was gone — the second vehicle and the same model that criminals had stolen from the house in just four months.
Weeks later, the vehicle somehow wound up in a used car lot all the way in Dubai.
“We’ve done everything we possibly can, save going over there and trying to take it back ourselves,” the vehicle owner told CBC. “I want my truck back.”
The SUV at the owner’s home. CBC News
He says he tracked the GMC Yukon at right to a lot in the United Arab Emirates. CBC NewsThe man, who gave his name only as Andrew fearing retaliation from the thieves, pulled out his smartphone and began tracking the SUV for hours with AirTags he had hidden inside as it drove around the Toronto metro area.
He called Toronto and other regional police departments to report the theft. Two days later, a York officer tracked the vehicle’s location with the technology to inside a shipping container at a railyard — but told Andrew there was nothing he could do.
The cop suggested Andrew call the Canadian Pacific Railroad’s private police, who didn’t respond before the container shipped off.
“That’s the pinnacle of the frustration,” Andrew told CBC, “knowing that it’s still here, but it’s about to disappear.”
Using Apple AirTags he had hidden in the vehicle, Andrew tracked the 2022 GMC Yukon XL. CBC NewsBy Aug. 11, the AirTags pinged from the Port of Montreal. Andrew alerted authorities there, but the AirTag went silent for nearly a month, he told CBC.
The AirTag pinged again on Sep. 6 all the way across the ocean in the ports in Antwerp, Belgium, which are among the busiest in Europe.
On Sept. 26, the vehicle resurfaced again at a port near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates — more than 6,800 miles from where it had been stolen.
Andrew’s father, a retired lawyer, began researching means to get the vehicle back. The family hired a private investigator in the UAE who located the SUV in a used car lot in Dubai, according to CBC.
He sent the family photos with the vehicle’s ID number visible through the windshield, matching that of Andrew’s stolen Yukon. It was listed for $80,000
A Toronto man looked out at his driveway on a holiday Monday last August and saw his SUV was gone. CBC NewsThe Toronto Police Service told the outlet in a brief statement, “The case is still very active.”
Canada is in the midst of a stolen vehicle epidemic. The trans-Atlantic route Andrew’s stolen vehicle took to get across the world has become popular among the thieves.
The Canada Border Services Agency [CBSA] told CBC it intercepted 1,806 stolen vehicles in 2023 — a 34 percent increase from the previous year.
The Toronto man spent weeks tracking his vehicle. CBC NewsNew York City last year offered Apple AirTags to car owners to thwart surging carjackings in targeted areas of the city.
Apple and several law enforcement agencies have advised that car owners report vehicle thefts to police instead of trying to track down and confront the carjackers on their own, according to AppleInsider.
