Stopping parcel thefts: Woman hides Airtag to trap thieves

A California woman fed up with having her packages stolen has served her thieves to the police on a silver platter by slipping an Airtag into the package she sent herself, to follow their trail.

“The Sheriff's Office would like to commend the victim for her proactive response, while emphasizing that she took due care in contacting law enforcement to safely and successfully apprehend the suspects,” the Barbara County Sheriff's Office said in a statement Tuesday. The New York Post.

At 7:17 a.m. Monday, the woman contacted police to report that her last package had been stolen from her box at a Los Alamos, California post office.

Except this time, the Californian set a trap for thieves by hiding an Apple AirTag that allows GPS to track an item's location in a package sent to her—even as bait for bandits.

But instead of going to the scene herself to confront them when she saw they had just taken the bait, she turned to the police to tell them the status of the robbers: a wise and commendable decision by the sheriff's office.

The latter were able to capture Virginia Francesca Laura, 27 years old, and 37-year-old Donald Ashton Terry, who had the victim's mail, we can read in the press release.

The two are also suspected of causing a dozen additional victims.

Both men were formally charged with fraud, identity theft, credit card theft and possession of checks with intent to commit conspiracy, and jailed on bonds of US$50,000 and US$460,000, respectively, including several additional theft counts related to Donald Terry.