Travel has resumed for so many in Singapore after Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, and along with all the happy IG posts from those who ticking off their bucket list of destinations, are the cautionary tales to be careful of thieves and pickpockets.
One TikToker, who goes by @eclair_travels on the platform, shared how technology—specifically Apple’s AirTag—“saved” his life after a pickpocket took his car key in Paris.
@eclair_travels Saved me a thousand plus dollars and days of servicing time. Apple I luv you <3. #Paris #France #travel #pickpocket #miracle #apple #airtag
How does an AirTag work? Well, here’s what Apple says.
“Your AirTag sends out a secure Bluetooth signal that can be detected by nearby devices in the Find My network. These devices send the location of your AirTag to iCloud — then you can go to the Find My app and see it on a map. The whole process is anonymous and encrypted to protect your privacy. And itʼs efficient, so thereʼs no need to worry about battery life or data usage.”
Plot twist: the TikToker’s car was in Singapore anyway, and so the key was all but useless to the thief.
He started his TikTok with footage from a rubbish bin where he retrieved his keys, followed by a picture of “the exact photo” he took when the thief unzipped his backpack.
Nine minutes later, he realized his bag was open because he could see that his keys were “on the move.”
“Dude was probably beeping everywhere to find and rob my car,” he wrote with some glee, “But my car was in Singapore lol…”
And though he went to a police station, he saw that it was closed “on a weekday.”
The AirTag showed that the key was somewhere in the Tuileries Garden, and though they searched through it, the key was nowhere to be found.
“I thought he threw it in one of the many drains.”
Giving up on the “wild goose chase,” they went to tea at Le Meurice.
But afterwards, he decided to give finding the key one last shot, going across the street to see if the location could be determined.
The key was shown to be only half a kilometre away, where the TikToker found it in a trash can.
“Dude couldn’t find the car and just threw it (the key) to the bottom of the bin.”
The AirTag, he wrote, saved him over $1,000 for a replacement key as well as “3-4 days of servicing and pairing.”
No wonder he wrote “Apple I luv you <3,” in the caption of his video.
Commenters on his post loved the irony of the situation:
The TikToker added in a comment that he had not meant to take his keys along on his vacation at all, but had merely forgotten to take them out of his backpack, which he uses daily.
A number of netizens commented on the police station being closed on a weekday.
Not only was the station closed, but the police on patrol also did not help the TikToker either.
One commenter said that the video is a sign to get themselves an AirTag too.
/TISG