A young woman has revealed how she managed to track down her stolen AirPods and confront the thief by using an app.
Alexandra Parmenter, 30, noticed the costly earbuds were missing from her bag while shopping at a charity store in Hawthorn, Melbourne’s east, earlier this year.
Ms Parmenter used the Find My app, a tracking software that is used to locate lost Apple items, to trace the AirPods.
She noticed the item was moving on the app for around 20 minutes and narrowed the location down to several townhouses in the area.
‘I could tell that the AirPods were there so I rang all of the doorbells for probably five to 10 minutes straight,’ Ms Parmenter told Yahoo.
The act prompted concern from dozens of neighbours as a determined Ms Parmenter desperately tried to find the item.
A man then came out of one of the apartments and said he had the AirPods before he handed them over.
The AirPods were badly damaged and the man said he found them like that.
‘Even though they have bite marks, they still work, still charge (although the case doesn’t close properly) and I use them every day,’ Ms Parmenter said.
Ms Parmenter said she took matters into her own hands and said police were not very helpful after her Prada wallet was stolen in a separate incident.
ReadyTechGo co-founder and tech expert Lisa Hu urged people to not to risk their safety by using the Find My app.
Ms Hu said using the tracking information from the app is not always a good idea as it could lead to potentially dangerous confrontations with strangers.
‘If it were me I would not be going to someone’s home, or I would at least bring a friend with me,’ Ms Hu said.
A spokeswoman from Victoria Police told Daily Mail people are urged to contact Triple Zero to avoid the situation escalating.
‘Our message is clear – your safety and the safety of your family is our number one priority,’ the spokeswoman said .
‘Police have extensive training which equips them with the skills and resources needed to respond to safety issues’.
Ms Parmenter admitted her actions were reckless and advised others not to do the same thing.
She said she didn’t consider the potential harm as she thought she would just go up to the person and ask for her Airpods back.