Man tracks individual who allegedly stole his AirPods
A man in Singapore shared on TikTok on Monday (12 Oct) that he followed an individual who allegedly stole his AirPods.
In the 1o-second clip he shared, a camera person aboard a tram in Sentosa points to his companion, who was holding a phone with the mobile app Find My open to track a missing device.
The camera then pans to a man in a floral shirt, who is believed to have stolen the Original Poster’s (OP) wireless earphones.
“When people say there’s nothing to do in Singapore, but all you need is to track the person that (sic) stole your AirPods,” the video’s text overlay read.
Source: @m.atthiass on TikTok
Owner initially dropped device aboard bus
Speaking to MS News, the OP, 21-year-old Matthias, shared that the incident occurred on Sunday (11 Oct) at around 5pm.
He clarified that the incident didn’t start as theft, as he had dropped his AirPods on Bus 123 while travelling from Somerset to Fort Canning MRT station.
Upon boarding the train, he reached out for his earphones and realised they were missing.
He immediately opened his Find My app and discovered the device was in the Fort Canning area.
“I decided to head back to Fort Canning with my friend to look for it, thinking it was left at the train station,” Matthias said.
However, they soon discovered that the device was changing locations.
This led them to believe it was still on the bus he took, which was now headed towards Beach Station Bus Terminal in Sentosa.
Image courtesy of Matthias.
Owner searches two buses for device
Matthias and his friend then decided to take a Grab to Sentosa, hoping to arrive at Beach Station ahead of Bus 123.
They managed to pull this off and asked the bus driver to help check the vehicle for the missing AirPods.
According to the Find My app, they were in the correct location. However, they were not able to find the device on the vehicle.
Image courtesy of Matthias.
The bus then left as scheduled, but the pair decided to check another Bus 123 which was arriving at Beach Station, thinking they had gotten the wrong bus the first time.
However, they did not find the AirPods on the second bus either.
Owner finds two men at device’s exact location
As the pair continued to search around the buses at the station, they discovered that the AirPods’ location on Find My had updated to Palawan Beach.
“Dismayed, I wanted to give up, but my friend insisted on giving chase as we were so close,” Matthias admitted.
They followed the AirPods’ location up and down Palawan Beach, joking that their outfits — which were not meant for the beach— stood out so much that the person who took his AirPods may find them suspicious.
Image courtesy of Matthias.
They eventually tracked the device at Palawan West. Due to the heavy haze, there were not many people at the beach, which made it easier for the pair to deduce who had taken the AirPods.
“In the far distance, my friend spotted two guys matching the rough location of the AirPods, so we decided to follow my friend’s instincts and followed them,” Matthias told MS News.
Owner follows man who took AirPods
As the two men suspected of taking the AirPods were about to board the tram back to Beach Station, Matthias and his friend hurried to board.
They decided to confirm if it was really the men who took the device before confronting them about it.
Matthias tried to connect to his AirPods on Find My, and it showed up. He then played an alarm through the app, which made the device ring loudly from one of the men’s bags.
Image courtesy of Matthias.
“That’s when we realised that they took it and it was a case of Dishonest Misappropriation of Property,” said Matthias, who is currently doing national service with the Singapore Police Force (SPF).
Man denies having AirPods
The pair decided to film clips as evidence while Matthias played the alarm multiple times, just in case the men deny taking his device.
Matthias noted that despite the alarm blasting loudly on the tram, the man whose bag contained his AirPods did not bat an eye.
Image courtesy of Matthias.
After getting off at Beach Station, the pair confronted the men, asking them if they had picked up his AirPods on Bus 123.
Matthias said this was to give them the “benefit of the doubt”, as they may have intended to surrender the missing device to the authorities.
However, the man whom Matthias believes is a Chinese national denied having the AirPods.
“So we did what we had to do and played the alarm and it started blasting from his bag,” Matthias shared.
Man returns AirPods to its owner
Matthias said the man started acting surprised, “as though he had a realisation or that he forgot he took an (sic) AirPods from the seat of Bus 123”.
As the man rummaged through his bag, Matthias sounded the alarm again to prevent him from saying he couldn’t find the device.
Fortunately, the man eventually pulled out AirPods and returned them to Matthias.
He noted: “Even his friend was shocked that he picked up an AirPods.”
“Idk why I thanked him, but I think at that point I just wanted my AirPods back,” Matthias also shared with MS News.
He said he did not contact the authorities at the time, as he initially thought he had only misplaced his earphones.
Also read: Migrant worker finds S’porean man’s passport, tracks him down on WhatsApp to return it
Migrant worker finds S’porean man’s passport, tracks him down on WhatsApp to return it
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Featured image courtesy of Matthias.
