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Kimberly Scroop had finished a workout at her local gym and was driving home when the strange alert first pinged her iPhone.
“AirTag detected near you,” the notification read.
It was 10.30pm and she’d nearly reached her Arizona apartment, where she lived alone.
She knew what an AirTag was, a Bluetooth-enabled device no bigger than a 20 cent piece that can track an object’s location.
But there was no good reason for it to be pinging her phone.
“So I screenshotted it and I dismissed it,” Scroop told 9news.com.au.
But when she got inside her apartment, and the alert flashed up again, a growing sense of panic kicked in.
“I started going through my stuff,” she said.
Scroop rifled through her gym bag. She checked the pockets of her clothing. She pulled the soles out from her shoes.
“I was … just trying to check anywhere really that it could be, because it’s small and it’s magnetic. So I was checking everywhere.”
Emptyhanded, she went downstairs and began “tearing my car apart”.
When the search yielded nothing, she called her stepdad and asked him what to do.
“He didn’t know what they were. So he was like, ‘It can’t be like that big of a deal’,” she said.
“And I was like, ‘No, you don’t understand, this is terrifying’.
“I was trying to tell him how serious it was.
Scroop kept looking, but eventually, she gave up.
The next morning she went straight to the local police station.
She explained what had happened and showed an officer the notifications, but they told her no crime had been committed and that nothing illegal was going on.
“Because I didn’t know who did it … when it was put on me or where it was, they couldn’t do anything for me, basically,” she said.
Scroop said the officer at the front desk asked her what they expected her to do, given she couldn’t tell them anything more about the device or its notification.
“It was just A1 policing.”
Exasperated, Scroop left and drove to a tyre workshop.
A helpful mechanic looked under the rims and searched the car but found nothing.
Launched by Apple last year, the AirTags were meant to help users keep track of their keys, wallet and other essentials.
Samsung does not sell the Galaxy SmartTag in Australia, but it can be bought on Amazon for just $41.
Tile sells its Bluetooth tracker for $39.95.
But the technology, which is undoubtedly helpful, can also very easily be misused by nefarious predators and abusive partners.
Misuse in Australia is in a very nascent stage.
But police and domestic violence organisations have told 9news.com.au that cases of tracker device stalking are on the rise.
Their fears have been detailed in this special three-part investigation.
Stalker ‘can watch my every move’
Several international celebrities and models who have been targeted and stalked have tried to raise awareness of the issue, and just how unsettlingly easy it has been for offenders to ambush them, as Scroop was.
Earlier this year, 26-year-old Sports Illustrated model Brooks Nader claimed a stranger slipped an Apple AirTag tracker into her coat pocket and followed her for five hours.
Later, while walking home alone at 11:30pm, she received an AirTag notification warning her an accessory had been detected on her.
Nader’s experience highlighted just how vulnerable a victim can be.
Like Scroop, Wild couldn’t find the device and called police for help.
“I got into my car to drive home at 2.30am last night and someone had put a tracker on my car,” she said.
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“My phone notified me of this but by the time I realised what was going on I had driven to my home address, which would be visible to the owner of the device.
“So scary to know someone now knows my home address, and can watch my every move.”
In June, Los Angeles-based Irish actress Hannah Rose May recounted how she had been at an after-hours event at Disneyland, from 11:45pm to 2am.
Before she jumped in her car to head home, she got the unexpected AirTag notification, similar to the way Scroop was ambushed by the alert.
“Someone had been tracking me for two hours,” she wrote on Twitter.
Airtags are the size of a coin, she said.
“It’s scary how easy they are to slip into a pocket or purse.
“The happiest place on earth could of very easily turned into my worst nightmare.”
Detective Inspector Boris Buick from Victoria’s Cybercrime Squad said anyone who thinks they are being stalked with a tracking device should report it to police.
“Abusive behaviour, which includes using technology to evoke fear and control over victims is unacceptable,” he told 9news.com.au.
So far there had been “low numbers” of reported cases, he said.
The eSafety Commissioner said although Apple had taken steps to build-in safety features into the design of AirTags, it was “not surprising” that tracking devices were being “weaponised” by stalkers or perpetrators of abuse.
Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said research showed technology-facilitated abuse (TFA) is a “widespread and serious problem” in Australia.
“We know that TFA by a current or former partner is almost ubiquitous in family and domestic violence situations, as an extension of surveillance, coercion and control.”
Using tech to monitor or cyber leash a partner is a “red flag” for physical violence, Inman Grant said, while warning that perpetrators who choose to commit domestic abuse will exploit any available technology.
“It is important to be aware of the risk posed by any device that has tracking abilities,” she said.
“Tracking devices can be small and easily hidden, and reveal a lot about daily patterns, such as where someone exercises or when they leave the house.
“The most important piece of advice – particularly if someone is concerned about being tracked – is to disable location services on all devices and be wary of any tracking items hidden in objects.”
Shaken up and switching up
Scroop never did find the device or solve the mystery of who was stalking her.
She has since moved to San Diego from Arizona, which has helped set her mind at ease.
But in the aftermath of what happened, she was seriously rattled for some time.
“I was shaken up,” Scroop said.
She made small changes, like not posting on Snapchat stories, switching up the places she would buy her coffee and delaying social media posts which could have identified she was in a particular location at a given time.
She also made big changes, like buying a new car and changing gyms.
“I didn’t have any suspects necessarily, no ex-boyfriends or anything like that, that I thought would do anything like that.
“The best I could imagine is somebody put it on my car when I was in a parking lot, maybe at the grocery store or at the gym.”
Scroop said she is worried that the laws haven’t caught up with technology.
“I feel like we need to do something about that.”
“Based on our knowledge and on discussions with law enforcement, incidents of AirTag misuse are rare; however, each instance is one too many,” the company’s website said.
Apple has been working closely with safety groups and law enforcement agencies.
“Through our own evaluations and these discussions, we have identified even more ways we can update AirTag safety warnings and help guard against further unwanted tracking,” the website said.
Apple declined to comment when it was contacted by 9news.com.au
A Tile spokesperson told 9news.com.au it offers a feature on its downloaded app which can detect unknown Tiles, however it acknowledged the limitations of such specific actions.
“To solve the broader issue of stalking at scale, there must be an industry-wide solution built within the platform to take the onus off the consumer,” the spokesperson said.
“We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with other companies and are working to engage in those conversations.”
If you are the target of abuse, please don’t try to handle it alone. If you are feeling unsafe contact police on 000 or call 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
