PHOENIX — A product meant to help those who misplace common objects could also be used by other people to track your location.
AirTags are a $30 gadget that uses Apple products around the world to help locate anything it's attached to. It could be a wallet, a backpack, or wherever this quarter-sized product can be placed.
There is a growing number of cases nationwide of the product being used to track people without their knowledge.
“I have no idea to this day who was tracking me,” Leah Dollison said.
Dollison lives in Texas. She said she got a few notifications that an AirTag was moving with her while driving on the highway.
When she opened up the notification, it showed she had been tracked throughout her drive.
"That was me dropping off my children with their grandmother," Dollison said.
When she returned home, she and her boyfriend tried to find the device, but couldn't locate it.
They decided to bring the car to a local body shop. There, mechanics found an AirTag hidden underneath the car.
Dollison went to the police but said she has not been contacted since.
“The thing that is a gamechanger is it is so simple, so inexpensive and so accurate,” said Bryan Neumeister, a court-certified forensics expert with USA Forensics.
The devices use other apple products to help locate whatever is being tracked. They are simple, user-friendly and make tracking more accessible.
Neumeister said short of sweeping your car every day, there is nothing practical to prevent an AirTag from being placed on your car.
However, there are easy steps to turn off an unwanted AirTag. Apple has a step-by-step process here for iPhone and Android users.
Thankfully these cases are rare. Only one valley police agency reported an open case involving an AirTag when asked by 12 News.
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