Florida Teen's Lost AirPod Leads Police To Hit-And-Run Driver's Arrest: 'People Say It's Karma'

In a surprising turn of events, a teenager’s lost AirPod and Apple Inc.’s AAPL Find My app, led the police to a hit-and-run driver’s arrest.

What Happened: The incident occurred on May 22, 2024, when 15-year-old Lochlan Nicol was involved in a hit-and-run accident in Jensen Beach, Florida. The driver of an SUV, Peter Bradford Swing, briefly stopped after the accident, moved the injured Nicol out of the road, and then fled the scene, reported AppleInsider (via The New York Times).

During the accident, one of Nicol’s AirPods fell into the SUV and got lodged under a floor mat. The driver, Swing, fled the scene after moving Nicol, who was unconscious and seriously injured, out of the road.

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Nicol’s girlfriend later found his wallet, phone, watch, and AirPods case at the crash site. She noticed that only one AirPod was in the case. When Nicol tried to locate the missing AirPod using the Find My app, it showed that it was at an address about four miles from the accident site.

After Nicol provided this information to the police, they were able to track the AirPod to Swing’s home. The AirPod was found in Swing’s SUV, which had a broken rear passenger-side window.

“It was that earbud that provided geo-tracking right to the suspect’s Jensen Beach home,” a sheriff’s spokesman said. “There’s no moral to the story. It was one of those things. It was a good break for us, a real good break.”

Swing was arrested and confessed to fleeing the scene due to a previous drug-related conviction. He now faces up to 15 years in prison for failing to stop at the scene of a crash with great bodily injury, a felony offense.

“It’s honestly amazing,” Lochlan’s father, Derek Nicol, said. “People say it’s karma. So maybe it’s karma that it happened. It’s just weird.”

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Why It Matters: This incident is another example of how Apple’s Find My feature has been instrumental in recovering lost or stolen devices and even in solving criminal cases. In a similar incident earlier this year, a user managed to recover their stolen iPhone from a Walmart’s EcoATM kiosk using the Find My app’s location tracking feature.

In another case, the Find My feature helped police track down AirPods allegedly stolen from a Canadian hotel.

However, the Find My feature has also been the subject of controversy. In a bizarre case, the app’s alleged faulty Maps data led to an unexpected gathering of people searching for their lost iPhones at a single Texas address.

Photo via Shutterstock

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.