Student turns TikTok sleuth to track down her stolen Ford Fiesta using an Apple Airtag
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A student took matters into her own hands when her Ford Fiesta was stolen outside her home, using an Apple AirTag to track it herself and documenting the trip on TikTok.
Zoë Pettit, 22, was horrified when she woke up early for a gym session to realize her car was missing from the street where it was parked in Selly Oak, Birmingham, last week.
Luckily, he attached an Apple AirTag, a tracking device that can be tracked via phone, to the lining of his boot after teammates warned him of a spate of carjackings in the area.
So when the business student discovered her car had been stolen, she and two college friends went on a mission to find it, succeeding within hours despite reportedly no luck by the police.
Zoë, originally from Norwich, Norfolk, explained: “Every morning I double check that it’s there because I see quite a few posts from people saying their car was stolen overnight.”
“I looked down the road and thought I was going crazy because I couldn’t see it.”
His car was not on the street where it was parked in Selly Oak, Birmingham, last week.
In a panic, Zoë, a student at the University of Birmingham, searched the surrounding streets, wondering if perhaps she had parked it in a different spot and forgotten.
But she couldn’t see him anywhere.
“I opened my phone and checked the AirTag, and I see it’s seven miles from where I am,” he said.
Zoë continued: “I ran back to my house and I was like ‘girls my car was stolen’. I was pretty frantic.
“We called the police and to be fair to them they were very helpful.
“They assigned someone right away and there was an officer driving over to where the AirTag was.”
Since the tag showed that the car was moving, a police officer tried to track it for a few hours, but was unable to see it.
In the end, the police gave up the search, she says, leaving Zoë with no choice but to accept defeat and report it stolen to her insurance provider.
Zoë decided to take matters into her own hands, against her parents’ advice.
He used his Apple AirTag, a tracking device that can be tracked via phone, to determine the whereabouts of the car.
She said: ‘The police were really helpful and did everything they could. It was close to noon at the time, and at nine I found out my car had been stolen.
“My dad was getting ready to call my insurance company and tell them it was basically robbed at this point.
‘A couple of my flatmates came home from their morning lectures and one of the girls said she had taken her car, so why didn’t we go and try to find it?’
She added: “My parents were like ‘don’t drive to the AirTag, whatever you do.’ Just leave it’.’
However, the girls went anyway, driving half an hour to Saltley, a inner-city area to the east of Birmingham.
She said: “At first we couldn’t find it, we drove for about 20 minutes and I was thinking this is weird.”
“In the end, I thought it wasn’t there, maybe they threw the AirTag out of the car, let’s go.”
But an opportunity to turn left as they were leaving the property led the girls directly to the missing white Ford, though its license plates had been changed.
I pressed my car key and it opened, I freaked out. I was like ‘OMG, it’s my car!’
The student couldn’t believe it when she saw her car, even though the license plate had been changed.
Friends celebrated with a McDonald’s on the way home
Zoë says she called the police who came to assess the situation as the car was near a residential road.
Detectives reportedly said it was safe and the girls were allowed to take the car back, celebrating with a McDonald’s on the way home.
Zoë said her beloved first car “suffered some injuries” as thieves cut off its steering wheel to remove its steering lock and reeked of smoking drugs inside.
But she added that she was “delighted” to get her car back, although she is “uncomfortable” to learn that a stranger was driving it.
Zoë said West Midlands Police are investigating the crime.
A spokesperson for the force told MailOnline: ‘We were called on 31st January after a white Ford Fiesta was stolen in Birmingham. Fortunately, the owner of the car had a tracker inside the vehicle and was able to track its location.
“The car appeared to be at a location in Birmingham, but when officers attended it was no longer there.
‘Subsequently, the owner identified a different location, went there herself and recovered her car.
Officers supported her in recovering the vehicle and are continuing to investigate the theft and identify suspects. Anyone with information can call 101 or use Live Chat on our website by quoting crime number 20/13098/23.’