Half a dozen bikes have been stolen from the storage locker at his North Vancouver townhouse complex this year, so Travis — who asked CTV News not to use his last name — wasn’t surprised when his wife’s bike went missing in August. The couple replaced it two weeks ago, but knew they needed to take extra precautions. So they bought an Apple Airtag, a small GPS tracker that works by connecting to nearby Internet-enabled Apple devices, and hid it on the bike. Last Saturday, a neighbor notified them that their new $3,000 bicycle had just been stolen from their storage locker, along with several other items. “The first thing we did now that we were able to track her bike is we got our phones and we were able to locate where the traceable device was, where the Airtag was,” Travis said. They were shocked to see that it was only three blocks away from where they were having lunch in lower Lonsdale. After walking the area for 45 minutes, they were able to track the Airtag signal in an underground park. “The way Airtags work is when you get within 50 meters of them, your phone can actually connect to it and it will give you a very accurate location,” Travis said. “So at that point, we knew we were very, very close to it. We had some suspicions as to who might have had it in the garage, but not wanting to contact or press charges, we just waited for the North Vancouver RCMP.” Media Relations Officer Const. Mansoor Sahak said North Vancouver RCMP officers arrived while the suspects were still in the park. “Police encountered two men near a vehicle, suspicious-looking men, and they were engaged in conversation,” Sahak said. “Once the victim saw the vehicle, he noted that there were bicycles inside the vehicle and pointed out that one of the bicycles was his. , which was our basis for arresting the two suspects.” The two men of no fixed address have lengthy criminal records. Sahak says Travis was smart to place the Airtag on the bike and not confront the suspects personally when he found out they had the bike. “We certainly don’t want people to take matters into their own hands and become vigilantes,” Sahak said. “Everything the man did was right. He made sure his property was protected, he used a device properly and he waited for the police when he went to the park.” Travis said he recognized other bikes in the suspect vehicle belonging to neighbors in his townhouse complex. They have all been recovered thanks to Airtag, which is also often used to locate lost luggage. “I had my reservations about how well this would work, but I had read a number of stories similar to this online that said it gives you a fighting chance of getting your property back,” Travis said. “And for the $30 to $40 it costs us to put them on the bikes, we thought it was at least worth it given the climate we have with bike theft in our area right now.” His wife is still waiting to get her bike back from the RCMP. But when it is returned, it will make sure the tracker is still on it.
