Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Emily Sinclair/JG Photography / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Technology, Apple, Australia, Crime, World News
Joe Harker
Topics: Technology, Apple, Australia, Crime, World News
A pair of travelers were left terrified after discovering that someone had placed an AirTag tracking device in their bag without their knowledge.
The devices from tech giant Apple are supposed to be used as a way of finding your keys or other personal objects with your phone, but people have found many more uses for them than that.
While some of the ways people are using AirTags are positive, including families giving them to relatives with dementia so they can be found in case something goes wrong, there have been plenty of times where the gadget has been deployed for nefarious purposes.
Now, a pair of women are warning fellow travelers after discovering an AirTag had been placed in their bags without their knowledge.
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According to 7News, Emily Sinclair and her partner Jane had gone from Australia to Bali to enjoy a bit of time off and had been there for a couple of days when they heard a 'strange noise' coming from one of Jane's bags.
Locating the source of the odd noise, the women discovered that it was an AirTag and since neither of them owned one, they soon realised that someone else must have put it there.
Immediately dismantling the device, they suspected that it had been placed into Jane's bag at the airport and although they had eight days left in Bali, they chose the safer option of immediately returning to Australia.
Emily told 7News they took a three hour taxi ride to Kuta to be in a more populated place and get as far away from anyone who might be stalking them.
Due to fly back to Australia on 1 April, they instead paid extra to swap onto a much earlier plane and jetted home over fears that the person who placed the device intended to make use of the information on their location.
They said the discovery 'really frightened us' and warned other travelers to be checking their luggage in case they also discovered they were being tracked.
Apple have instructions available on the way to disable an AirTag, but recommend that if you find a suspicious device you turn it off rather than destroying it outright, as it could be used to track the potential stalker.
This isn't the first time something sinister like this has happened involving an AirTag. Last December, two women launched a lawsuit against Apple after being victims of AirTag stalking and police are giving people advice on how to know if you're getting tracked by one of the devices.
Police in Canada also had to issue a warning about the tracking devices, released by Apple in 2021, as thieves were using them to steal luxury vehicles.
Sadly, the tracking devices have also been used for stalking as well, with a woman saying she was followed home by a man who dropped an AirTag into her coat and another realising she was currently being stalked about getting a notification that her movements had been tracked for hours.
And a family were left terrified after taking a trip to Disney World and having a similar experience, being notified that their location was being tracked in the middle of their vacation.