Buys a secondhand car and it’s robbed at gunpoint by a familiar face
A man bought a secondhand car, right before seeing it stolen by the seller.
In College Point, Queens, a bizarre turn of events unfolded when a man found himself at gunpoint with the very individual who had just sold him a car.
The 27-year-old buyer had recently purchased a blue 2018 BMW from a buyer via Facebook Marketplace, paying $6,000 in cash. Concern arose when the buyer spotted an AirTag attached to the car. He tossed it aside, thinking nothing of what now looks like a potential warning sign.
At approximately 3:30 a.m. the following morning, the homeowner was abruptly awakened by the noise of his car starting. Stepping outside to investigate, he was confronted by the seller, who turned out to be the thief, waving a handgun. The BMW sped away with a second individual already in the driver’s seat in what appeared to be a heavily-coordinated crime.
In interviews with police, the buyer admitted to noticing the AirTag but choosing to ignore it. He — naively, albeit understandably — didn’t anticipate that it would enable the seller to pinpoint his location in order to carry out a grand theft auto.
At the time of writing, the latest reports suggest the criminals have not been found. While some may rush to push narratives of the risks that come with purchasing through informal channels, this is more a story of caution. Modern tracking devices like AirTags are designed to provide peace of mind, but they can also become tools of surveillance; in this case, the buyer’s stark lack of awareness, disposing of the tracker rather than investigating it, proved costly.
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Apple AirTags being hidden in cars to track their locations is not a new phenomenon: back in 2021, Canadian police released a statement in which they explained how “suspects have placed small tracking devices on high-end vehicles, so they can later locate and steal them,” adding that “thieves then track the targeted vehicles to the victim’s residence, where they are stolen from the driveway.”
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