PSA: Don’t steal AirPods, they’re basically AirTags

March 25, 2023

3 min read

Apple’s AirTag has become known for helping people find their lost items, but there are other Apple products that also work with the Find My network – including AirPods. This time, a woman who lost her wireless earbuds on a plane tracked them to the home of an airline employee.

Woman finds her lost AirPods in the home of an airport worker

As reported by CNN, Alisabeth Hayden lost her AirPods after a flight from Tokyo to San Francisco. After landing at San Francisco International Airport, she realized she had forgotten her leather jacket on her seat. “I realized before I was even off the plane,” she told the reporter. The flight attendant refused to let her go back to her seat to get the jacket back.

Instead, the person said he would bring the jacket for her. The flight attendant did indeed bring the jacket back, but Hayden only realized that her AirPods were not there after boarding another flight to Seattle. “The pockets were open, and my AirPods were gone,” the woman said.

Of course, since Apple’s AirPods are trackable through the Find My network, Hayden used the app to see the location of her wireless earbuds. While the AirPods were initially still at the San Francisco Airport, the earbuds moved to a United Cargo unit at the airport. Then, hours later, the AirPods were located at a residential address in San Mateo, in the Bay Area.

The woman contacted United and San Francisco Airport to report the incident, but nothing was done about it. Luckily, she contacted the police and got help from a detective working for the San Mateo police. Together, they tracked the AirPods to the home of a contractor airport employee who loads food onto the aircraft.

A few days later, the detective called her again to say that the employee had been questioned. He’d denied having the AirPods, until being shown the tracking screenshots at his home – at which point he said that he’d been given them by one of the airplane cleaners. That person denied all knowledge of the situation.

Nearly two weeks later, the woman got her AirPods back, but the earbuds were not in good condition. After multiple complaints, United gave her $271.91 to buy new headphones, plus 5,000 bonus miles as an apology. Even though AirPods are not as expensive as an iPhone or iPad, Hayden said that she “shouldn’t have to explain” why she went to all the trouble to recover her stolen AirPods.