Man tries to stalk someone with an AirTag and gets arrested

AirTag Setup
AirTag Setup (Image credit: Joe Keller / iMore)

What you need to know

  • A man has been arrested after attempting to stalk someone by placing it in their car.
  • Police were dispatched and found the AirTag.

Apple's AirTag has been involved in another stalking incident.

As reported by CTInsider, police have arrested a man in Waterbury, Connecticut after he attempted to track a victim by placing an AirTag in their car.

Police said that they were dispatched for a "reported domestic dispute" and, upon checking the vehicle, found that the man placed an AirTag inside of it in an attempt to stalk the victim. It's currently unclear if police happened upon the item tracker or if it alerted the victim that it was traveling with them.

Wilfred Gonzalez was charged Sunday with first-degree stalking and violation of a protective order, Naugatuck police said. Both offenses are felonies. The 27-year-old was also charged with misdemeanor breach of peace.Police said they were dispatched Sunday for a "reported domestic dispute" to an address in Naugatuck, and an investigator "discovered the accused placed a tracking device... in the victim's vehicle."

This is not the first time that someone tried to use an AirTag for a nefarious purpose. From trying to track a model to trying to steal a truck, perpetrators have attempted to use the device for unintended purposes.

Apple released AirTag as a small device that you can use to track your items like your keys, backpack, luggage, and more. It is not intended to be used to track people and the company has a number of features in place to deter such use including alerting you when an unknown AirTag is moving with you.

Apple certainly isn't the only item tracker company out there but it is surely the largest and therefore has a responsibility to ensure as many safety features are built into the product as possible.

Joe Wituschek
Contributor

Joe Wituschek is a Contributor at iMore. With over ten years in the technology industry, one of them being at Apple, Joe now covers the company for the website. In addition to covering breaking news, Joe also writes editorials and reviews for a range of products. He fell in love with Apple products when he got an iPod nano for Christmas almost twenty years ago. Despite being considered a "heavy" user, he has always preferred the consumer-focused products like the MacBook Air, iPad mini, and iPhone 13 mini. He will fight to the death to keep a mini iPhone in the lineup. In his free time, Joe enjoys video games, movies, photography, running, and basically everything outdoors.