San Antonio police report that a Texas man located his stolen truck using an Apple AirTag and fatally shot the man he suspected of stealing it. The deceased was identified as Andrew John Herrera, 44, and the medical examiner declared his death a homicide due to a gunshot wound to the head.
The incident occurred at a shopping center in southeast San Antonio when the truck owner confronted the carjacker, who may have pulled out a firearm. But as of now, it is still unclear if the suspect had a weapon, and the police are investigating further. The stolen truck was found at the scene with the windows shattered.
The truck owner, whose identity is unknown, tracked down his stolen vehicle using an Apple AirTag, a small, Bluetooth-enabled device typically used for tracking keys or bags. The owner located the stolen vehicle and shot Herrera without first calling the police.
San Antonio officer Nick Soliz warns that people shouldn’t take the matter of stolen vehicles into their own hands, saying, “If you are to get your vehicle stolen, please do not take matters into your own hands like this. It’s never safe as you can see by this incident.”
A spokesperson for Apple recently stated that they will work with law enforcement to track AirTags in order to catch criminals.
“AirTag was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or another person’s property, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use of our products.
“Unwanted tracking has long been a societal problem, and we took this concern seriously in the design of AirTag. It’s why the Find My network is built with privacy in mind, uses end-to-end encryption, and why we innovated with the first-ever proactive system to alert you of unwanted tracking. We hope this starts an industry trend for others to also provide these sorts of proactive warnings in their products,” the spokesperson said.
