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Comment by scrapcode | Hacker News Reader

Wouldn't the notification that an AirTag is located somewhere in the vehicle they're thinking of stealing deter them from stealing it?

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The notification doesn't fire until you've been moving along with the tag for a while, so the vehicle has already been stolen by the time the thieves are aware there's an AirTag present. I guess it might encourage them to dump the vehicle somewhere and abandon it, and you can then go pick it up using the AirTag's last known location. Doesn't really prevent the initial theft, but improves your chances for recovering the vehicle.

In my experience they just rip the AirTag off once it notifies them and then continue on their merry way.

Seems like you would want to install it somewhere that is difficult to reach. Behind the dashboard for example, something that requires some work to access. Maybe wrapped in a bit of sound deadening material to make it harder to locate.

How many car thieves carry iPhones? That Venn diagram will have an overlapping area, but I'll bet it's not that big.

They’d get one if they do it regularly. We catch the stupid ones but not all of them are stupid. I imagine most are aware of AirTags and could get the cheapest iPhone to detect them.

Why wouldn't most car thieves have iPhones?

Because most people who aren't car thieves don't.

Globally, sure. In the US, it looks like iOS is about 57% market share. I suspect it's even higher in New York City.

It's pure speculation, but I wonder if the average car thief is more likely to own an iPhone as a form of status symbol? Or, is the average car thief more likely to be using burner phones from Walmart?

Not if it helps them find and remove the AirTag. It might have a deterring effect if the Airtag was somewhere hard to remove

I don't have an AirTag, but I think if you get the notification you can make the tag play noise to help find it.

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