According to AppleInsider, a U.S. Army wife said she used AirTag to track items in her home during a move when a shady moving truck driver didn’t deliver on time. Military personnel undergoing permanent station change (PCS) relocation often find problems with shipper responsibility for household items.
Shipments are often delayed by contractors for weeks or months with little or no communication about where or why the shipment was lost or delayed. In fact, AppleInsider staff have dealt with a lack of accountability or good tracking of shipments on multiple occasions.
Military sister-in-law Valerie McNulty told Military Times she had heard “horrific stories” while moving from one job site to another. During a transfer from Fort Carson, Colorado, to Drenburg, New York, to monitor her family’s belongings, McNulty said she stuffed an AirTag into one of the boxes before the transfer.
When it comes to PCSing, you hear a lot of scary stories, she said. Given those stories, and reading about people putting AirTags with some of their [household items], I decided it was worth testing the theory.
AirTag’s tracking capabilities come in handy when their home’s household items aren’t delivered on time. When the expected delivery date of January 7 passed and the family did not receive her shipment, McNulty contacted her moving coordinator.
The coordinator told her that she should receive the shipment the next day, and she was able to confirm that it was only a four-hour drive away. However, McNulty said she then got a call from the delivery driver, who told her he had just picked up the shipment in Colorado and that it would not be possible to deliver the next day.
The driver reportedly hung up on her when she told him it wasn’t true and the delivery was only a few hours away. I let him know that I knew he was only four hours away from us, she noted. He called again a few minutes later and tried to haggle with me to see if he could deliver on Sunday or Monday.
McNulty contacted her moving coordinator but soon discovered the company didn’t know where the driver was. Her AirTag gave her more information. In the end, the driver called back, claiming he was with his girlfriend. He told McNulty he didn’t know she could stalk her and he was going to meet my girlfriend.
Sharing her experience on Facebook, McNulty said she hopes more military families use AirTags during major relocations or job reassignments. She wrote: Instead of waiting for others to change anything, I took matters into my own hands. I hope this story spreads, and I hope other military families hear our story and they can share it in their ( household items) add AirTags.
This isn’t the first time AirTags have been used to find missing items. They have been used to find stolen scooters and lost wallets.