AirTag has proven its usefulness over the past several months. Apple’s item tracker has helped many recover their valuables, including a forgotten wallet in the NY subway. This time around, a Chicago man tasted luck after he successfully recovered a stolen car with the help of AirTag.

The man went to get his car at 3 AM only to find it missing. He then asked his family members if they had taken the car. Soon enough, he realized that his 2010 Subaru Forester had been stolen. Police reported the vehicle as stolen, beyond which they couldn’t do much. The man started filing an insurance claim and suddenly remembered that he had an AirTag in the car.

The guy had bought AirTag 4-packs, out of which one AirTag was still in the stolen car. With millions of iPhone users around, tracking the vehicle should have been an easy affair. The person marked AirTag as lost, and it showed the last location as his house at 10.17 PM. In other words, nearly 5 hours had elapsed since the car was stolen.

When I arrived at the parking lot, I drove around with my phone out the window until my bluetooth connected to the tracker. I parked and walked around until I found the tracker by ringing it. It was under a parked car, and I could hear it, but it was rainy and gross out and I didn’t want to lay down in the puddle under the car to get it. So I sat and waited, hoping the car belonged to a customer who would leave.

The man got a notification that his car had been parked in Northlake in a Walmart parking lot. Upon calling Police, they informed him that his vehicle was not present in the parking lot. The person went to the parking lot and started getting multiple pings from the AirTag. The thief had discovered the tracker and disposed of it in a puddle under a car.

After waiting for a while, the person decided to return. As he was about to return, he spots the stolen car entering the parking lot. He called 911, and this time Police were able to apprehend the thief. The car owner expresses his gratitude to AirTag and suggests it as an option if you don’t want to pay for GPS.