I just found my lost AirTag… you’ll never guess where it went | ZDNet

Apple AirTags interest me. I’ve been a longtime fan of Tile tags, and so when I was passing an Apple Store, I just had to get some.

But rather than put them on my precious items, I wanted to test to see just how good they were. I documented a couple of tests here and here. One of my AirTags is chilling in a small Scottish village where I’m testing its weather durability (I’ll pick it up on my way back home, if I remember), and the other one… well, that one got lost.

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I’d been testing whether an iPhone in a car could pick up on an AirTag left on the side of the road. Problem was, between me doing the test and me going back to grab the AirTag, the local authority decided it was time to cut the grass along the side of the road.

The AirTag was gone. I thought the story would end there, but it doesn’t.

I was convinced that the AirTag would not survive the blades and whirly things involved with cutting grass. However, about 20 minutes after I discovered that it was gone, I got a notification that it was seen in a nearby town (I’d switched on notifications for it).

The location suggested that it was detected on a road, so I assumed that it was in a vehicle, and that the vehicle had driven past someone with an iPhone that was quietly looking for AirTags. I did a drive-by of the area, but it wasn’t there.

Now, first off, I’m impressed by the durability of AirTags. Roadside grass cutting is not a subtle thing, but the tag survived.

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But the story doesn’t end there.

The other day, while I was writing up a piece about AirTag firmware updates, I noticed that my AirTag had pinged its location again. This was almost three weeks after it went missing.

Oh, maybe I could go pick it up.

Then I realized it was some 175 miles away.

Well, I was up for a small road trip.

Then I saw where it was.

It was on the outskirts of the Scottish town of Wick. At a landfill and recycling site.

Well, no getting it back from there then.

If I get any more pings from it, I’ll update this story, but I am fascinated by the fact that it managed to ping its location again. The locations seemed very precise and looked like it was in a truck at the unloading area.

Someone with an iPhone must have been nearby.

If nothing else, it’s closure on my AirTag. Sorry lil buddy, I didn’t mean to lose you.