Air Tags as a Cheap Method to Locate a Stolen Trailer?

CrabTab

I was reading up on the new Apple Air Tags. Could this be a method to try and track a trailer that has gone missing? ... or for that matter be hidden inside a generator, etc. ? What do you think?

AirTag - Apple

VictoriaP

It was the first thing I thought of when I saw the announcement. I read though that it apparently starts chirping when separated from the owner for three days, which seems like it would lead a thief to the device’s location pretty quickly. I’m not sure how far “separated” is and haven’t had time to research it further, so I’ll be interested to see what others think.

masnpip

I have air tags on order and planned to use one for just this purpose. After reading more about this chirping, it seems like a not-ideal-but-better-than-nothing option. After 3 days of separation from the owner, the tag will chirp occasionally. Possibly missable by a thief, or they could attribute the chirp to a smoke detector. But if they have an iPhone, a message will pop up on their phone alerting them that an air tag is following them! Apparently Tile trackers do not do this. I think that a well-hidden air tag and quickly tracking the thief before they disable it might be useful. It is worth $25 for a little peace of mind for me.

SweetlyHome

I have been reading about Airtags.  They appear to be a bluetooth device which means their range is less than 100 feet from your phone.  Does this meet your needs?

Marceline

SweetlyHome said:

I have been reading about Airtags.  They appear to be a bluetooth device which means their range is less than 100 feet from your phone.  Does this meet your needs?

That’s sort of correct but not really the whole story. I’ve been using Tiles for years and Airtags work pretty much the same way. They locate items in two ways: 1) Bluetooth connection to your own phone (what you describe) 2) Bluetooth connection to other people’s phones. 

The second is what allows you to track down items that are out of your range. I actually used a Tile to track down a friend’s wallet halfway across San Francisco. When you report an item as lost, Tile starts sending you info when another Tile user’s phone detects your Tile in proximity. I haven’t tested the Airtag yet, but it works in pretty much the same way. Airtag will have an advantage over Tile in that every iPhone with location services enabled will be able to send data. But for tracking a stolen item, the chirping is a downside. If you’re not will to spend the money on a GPS tracker, an Airtag would be better than nothing. 

SweetlyHome

@Marceline, thanks for the info.  This forum is such a great place to learn about just about anything.

lkc001

@Marceline so you are saying that once the airtag gets 100 feet away from you, say it's stolen and the thief is now 25-50 miles away, that the airtag "network" can pick up the signal through someone else's airtag and it will report to you where that location is at that moment?  I had looked at one of those "tiles" some time ago, but when I saw the 100 foot limitation it wouldn't work for me--I was going to put it on my dog.

Marceline

lkc001 said:

@Marceline so you are saying that once the airtag gets 100 feet away from you, say it's stolen and the thief is now 25-50 miles away, that the airtag "network" can pick up the signal through someone else's airtag and it will report to you where that location is at that moment?  I had looked at one of those "tiles" some time ago, but when I saw the 100 foot limitation it wouldn't work for me--I was going to put it on my dog.

I haven’t tested the Airtag but I’ve used Tiles for many years and I understand that they work in pretty much the same way. When you lose a Tile (and the object it’s connected to) you use the App to report it lost. Once you do that the Tile system starts reporting location information collected from other phones with the Tile app installed. We found my friend’s wallet because it ended up in a post office and every time someone entered the post office with a Tile-enabled phone it sent location data to my friend’s phone. This is all anonymized, of course. You don’t know who’s phone has connected with your tile. 

lkc001

Great info!! Now I understand it more— thanks!

Verna

I’ve used Tiles for a few years on possessions and on my two dogs. If the beep sounds on the dogs, it does scare them, so that is a problem. Luckily, both dogs tend to stay together so one would run after the other….hopefully.