About two years ago, Constable Marco Ricciardi with the Toronto Police Service got word from law enforcement partners in the U.S. that thieves south of the border were attaching AirTags to vehicles to track the vehicles and steal them later when they were unattended.
In response, Ricciardi and his partner made a video, detailing what to look for and how to prevent it. The video has been viewed 6 million times.
Ricciardi says the AirTag method has spread to Canada, but there haven’t been many cases in his division. One of the more recent incidents in Toronto occurred last March when police arrested an individual in the Yorkdale Shopping Centre parking lot for attaching an AirTag to a vehicle.
Thieves patrol busy parking lots, such as those around malls or movie theatres, searching for desirable vehicles. “They literally have orders. They have specific colours, models, and stuff like that,” says Ricciardi. “Someone might ask them to go get them a white Land Rover with a red interior.”
When the thieves spot the vehicle they want, they attach the magnetic AirTag to a discreet spot on the vehicle, such as behind the licence plate, in the gas tank cap, or the rear hitch receiver. AirTags use Apple’s iOS system to send out a signal, meaning as long as there’s an iPhone nearby, they can be tracked almost anywhere in the world. The thieves follow the vehicle back to the owner’s home and wait until everyone’s asleep.
If your car has been tagged, it’s possible you may receive an AirTag notification on your iPhone. AirTags try to connect with nearby Apple devices. Although, if you’re driving along a busy road, this could just be an AirTag in a nearby vehicle, such as on someone’s luggage or on a pet’s collar. When you have a chance, pull over and use the locate AirTag feature on your phone. If an AirTag has been placed on your vehicle, it should start making a pinging noise. If you can’t locate the AirTag, drive the vehicle to your local police department or have a mechanic look it over.
For Android users, download the app Tracker Detect to receive notifications from nearby AirTags.
If a thief has tracked your vehicle, they may not need the keys to steal it. New car key fobs emit a signal. Using a radio-frequency identification (RFID) transmitter, the thieves can gain access to this signal, cloning the fob and unlocking the vehicle without alerting anyone.
Ricciardi says he also believes that thieves can use a vehicle’s identification number (VIN) to hack into the fob faster. “They have to program the fob. It’s got to figure out what car it is. But if they input the VIN into the programmer and say, ‘This is my VIN. Go get me the possible combinations.’ It narrows it down,” he says. Ricciardi has seen thieves clone a fob in as little as three minutes.
Aside from scanning for AirTags, there are other steps you can take to protect against vehicle theft. Ricciardi recommends investing in a steering wheel or brake pedal lock and a tire lock. Parking your vehicle indoors, such as in a garage, and installing motion sensor lights and surveillance cameras around your property. Store fobs in a Faraday box or pouch. This blocks the fob’s signal, preventing thieves from hacking it. And keeping the VIN on your vehicle covered.
You can also use AirTags to your advantage. “I tell people to put two AirTags in their own vehicle,” says Ricciardi. This way, if you’re vehicle is stolen, you can track it. And the reason he suggests two is that thieves will look for an AirTag, especially if the device sends a notification to their phones. But they may not look for a second AirTag. Conceal the first AirTag somewhere easy to find like the centre console or glovebox. Then place the second AirTag in a more discreet location, like the trunk.
While most vehicle thefts occur in urban areas, cottagers should still be wary, especially if they leave their vehicles in remote or unsupervised locations, such as a marina or a rural parking lot. Ricciardi suggests using the above recommendations to protect those vehicles: an extra lock on the vehicle, a Faraday box if the fob is close by, and covering the VIN number.
As for AirTags, that’s less likely in cottage country. Ricciardi says it’s certainly possible a thief might tag the vehicle in the city and try to steal it from the cottager’s home, but the thief is unlikely to follow the owner all the way to their cottage.
“I haven’t heard of anything like that,” says Ricciardi. “If someone comes down to Toronto for, let’s say, a concert at Budweiser Stage and they have their car marked with an AirTag, and then the thief watches it being driven up to Muskoka. For them to go steal the vehicle, it’s got to be something really, really rare.”
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