A tourist’s decision to pack a dozen coin-sized hi-tech gadgets into his luggage has paid dividends after his prized possessions were stolen during load-shedding in Camps Bay.
IT consultant Marinus van Deventer, who lives in the UK and returned to SA on holiday, said one or more burglars slipped into his rented Airbnb in the upmarket Cape Town suburb while the power was off on Monday night, stealing a drone and his SA passport.
That’s when his decision to put AirTags — small discs touted by tech company Apple as a “super-easy way to keep track of your stuff”, such as keys that are often misplaced — set in motion a sleuthing exercise that led to a parked Range Rover and two arrests.
The button-shaped tags emit a Bluetooth signal that can be detected by nearby devices that send the location to iCloud — where it can be seen on a map. The accuracy, however, relies on nearby compatible devices.
“The suspects came into the house during load-shedding and stole a laptop, my passport, drone and some power banks,” said Van Deventer.
“Everything had a [tag] on it, and we managed to trace them. We managed to get the drone back. My house keys have a tag on them, and we picked them up in the bush in Camps Bay, and my SA passport.
“We saw the AirTags were pinging in Sea Point outside Checkers [retail store]. We were with the police and managed to trace it to a Range Rover parked outside, then waited for the guy [the driver] to come out. The guy who sold it to him was also there.” The unwitting buyer said they had purchased the drone via social media.
I was up the whole day on Tuesday until 1am, chasing these items with the Camps Bay police. We were chasing around after them, we were at the station, on top of the station, the foreshore in the middle of the night because the AirTags were still pinging.
— Marinus van Deventer
Van Deventer said police found pictures of suspected stolen laptops, including his, on the driver’s phone: “We managed to find my laptop as well,” he added.
In retrospect, he believes the suspects were observing the property from nearby. “They could see our movements, and when the lights went off, they got sunglasses, laptops, all that stuff and my passport.
“What made it a nightmare is that my iPhone was also gone. I had to go to the V&A Waterfront and buy a new iPhone and managed to get Vodafone in the UK to give me a one-time passcode to get back into my iPhone. It was a bit of a pain.”
Van Deventer said he had put the tiny tags in “every suitcase” after being comforted during a trip in December when he “could see that the suitcases were actually on the plane with me”.
“I was up the whole day on Tuesday until 1am, chasing these items with the Camps Bay police. We were chasing around after them, we were at the station, on top of the station, the foreshore in the middle of the night because the AirTags were still pinging,” he said.
“The stuff we managed to get back was worth quite a lot of money. We found out that these guys were part of a syndicate dealing in stolen goods. The guy in the Range Rover is the guy who bought the drone. The guys who raid the houses are young guys on tik [drug], and then they sell them on.”
He was accompanied by two Ukrainian friends and his sister during the incident.
“The Ukrainian women read about crime in SA. It was quite a worry for them to come to SA, considering they are coming from country at war,” he said.
Provincial police spokesperson Col Andrè Traut said: “A case was registered for a housebreaking and theft at a Camps Bay guesthouse on Monday.
“Investigation led to the arrest of one suspect in his 20s on Tuesday and another one, also in his 20s [later]. One was arrested in Sea Point and the other in Camps Bay. Electronic equipment stolen during the crime such as laptops and cellular telephones were recovered, some items as far as Paarl. The matter is before the court.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.