Owner of Stolen GMC Yukon Finds the SUV Across the Ocean, and There's Nothing He Can Do

The living proof comes from Toronto, where the owner of a 2022 GMC Yukon XL managed to determine the vehicle's location but couldn't do anything about it.

The man says it's the second Yukon stolen from his driveaway. When he arrived home one evening, he noticed the SUV's steering wheel was bent inward. It was a sign that a thief tried but failed to remove the steering wheel lock. He believed the thief was already gone, but later the same night, they returned and managed to drive away in the SUV.

The owner knew precisely how to deal with car theft, and after losing his first SUV, he installed AirTags to track the location of the second Yukon. The second he noticed the vehicle was no longer parked in front of his house, he pulled out the iPhone and looked for information shared by the Apple tracker.

It didn't take long before the device shared its location.

AirTags work by connecting to nearby iPhones to broadcast their coordinates. They don't have built-in Internet, so they rely on Apple smartphones in proximity to go online. AirTags show their location in the Find My app on the owner's iPhone as long as a smartphone connects to the trackers via Bluetooth. It means another iPhone must be about 10 meters away from the tracker to establish the connection.

The GMC owner received AirTag location information on his iPhone immediately after the theft. He contacted the Toronto police, telling them that the vehicle was located in the Greater Toronto Area.

Police needed two days to step in, and by the time an officer was assigned to the case, the vehicle was already located at the Canadian Pacific Kansas City railway's (CPKC) terminal in Vaughan. The owner immediately contacted the officer, shared the location, and continued to monitor the Find My app to see if the vehicle moved. The officer rushed to the provided location and found two containers, one of which definitely hid the stolen SUV. At one point, the AirTag shared its location with the owner when the officer was near the containers, another sign the vehicle was inside.

However, the police officer said he couldn't do anything because he had no authority to open the containers. He told the owner to contact railway security, but the container was already on its way to another location by the time he received an answer.

With his hands tied, the man had no option but to watch the Yukon travel to new locations. He kept trying to contact authorities to no avail. The vehicle was spotted in Montreal, then in Europe, in Belgium, and eventually in the UAE.

The vehicle was parked in the same location for months, at which point the owner decided to hire a private investigator in Dubai to search for the vehicle. Using the location data provided by the AirTag, the detective found the car in a user car lot where it was waiting for a new owner. The VIN code matched the stolen Yukon's.

The owner knows where the stolen SUV is but says authorities can't help him. Local police told the press that the case is still active but couldn't comment on whether they contacted UAE law enforcement to recover the Yukon.

The man also tried to contact other authorities that could help recover the vehicle, including the Emirati police and Interpol, but he didn't receive an answer. The Yukon is in the same place, and he says he's already tried everything except for going to Dubai and trying to recover the SUV himself.

Apple's AirTag comes with a CR2032 replaceable battery that offers approximately six months of autonomy per unit. However, they can also last for one year if the device doesn't connect to an iPhone for a long time. The pill-shaped device uses a small form factor, so owners can plant it where it's nearly impossible to detect, making it difficult for thieves to locate it.

However, AirTags also generate anti-stalking warnings on nearby iPhones when moving with them. In this case, the tracker likely connected to random iPhones as the vehicle traveled to new locations, so no such warnings were issued.

Apple is also working on a second-generation AirTag. The device could launch in 2025 with improved hardware, including better battery life and increased precision. Apple did not comment on the existing rumors, but it's believed the company is not in a rush to unveil the improved model because the first generation still sells well. The tech giant wants to clear out the existing inventories before launching AirTag 2, so you'd better not hold your breath for a new model until at least next year.