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Comment by newhotelowner | Hacker News Reader

Apple AirTag Linked to Increasing Number of Car Thefts, Canadian Police Report - https://nypost.com/2021/12/07/carjackers-are-using-this-new-...

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Why does the thief bother to track your car back to your house to steal later? Why not just drive around the residential areas where the cars are parked and just choose one at the time you want to do the theft?

So that the thief can learn your schedule and when you're home or using the car and can plan in advance to avoid being caught. Among other things, information about the exact location of an expensive vehicle over multiple days is very valuable information when you're trying to steal said vehicle.

Not a car thief but it's an interesting question. Maybe given the VIN and a few hours/days you can lookup and make a correct key for that type of car. So the tag is placed when the VIN is collected and the theft is smooth with a valid key.

In Amsterdam I once met an Eastern European career criminal who followed people driving home after work hours and waited for them to get into the shower. Then he'd pick their front door lock and take the keys.

Unrelated, he also had a room in his apartment set up to grow weed, with some serious climate control and artificial lighting. He was dealing this pot. He had no papers or permit to stay... what crazy folk.

Pretty bold. I don't know much about Amsterdam, but I've heard burglars in the USA are usually very careful not to break into a house when people are home, as the consequences are much more severe compared to burglarizing an unoccupied house.

> when people are home, as the consequences are much more severe compared to burglarizing an unoccupied house.

Yes, because unlike in Europe, people in USA have the right to shoot you dead if you're trespassing in their property.

That was the article where buried in the text it admits that there were 5 cases that police knew about. Just 5. Looks more like clickbait to me. For the price of an airtag I could just use a GPS tracker with LTE uplink, and not worry about Apple being able to tell the police who the tag was activated for.

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