AirPods are great earphones, but did you know they can also be crime fighters? In Florida, a dislodged AirPod tracked an alleged hit-and-run driver after a bike-riding teen’s head went through his passenger window and the earbud popped out and got stuck under a floormat.
Location tracking on that little earbud led straight to an arrest on felony charges.
Teen’s dislodged AirPod tracks alleged hit-and-run driver in Florida
Lochlan Nicol, 15, recently rode his bike to a gas station to pick up ice cream in Jensen Beach, Florida. But an SUV slammed into him as it turned into the station’s driveway, The New York Times reported Wednesday. And from there, a most-unusual crime-solving story unfolded.
The incident occurred at about 10:30 p.m. on May 22. Lochlan’s head went through the SUV’s rear passenger window, knocking him out and fracturing his nose, cheekbone and eye socket.
The driver paused, but only to move Lochlan out of the road and leave him outside the gas station, according to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. Then the driver fled the scene, according to the sheriff.
AirPod leads to arrest on felony charges
It was only the AirPod that let investigators track down the alleged hit-and-run driver: Peter Bradford Swing, 49, of Jensen Beach. The little white earbud got knocked out of Lochlan’s head and lodged under a floormat in Swing’s car. The driver probably never noticed it.
“It was that earbud that provided geo-tracking right to the suspect’s Jensen Beach home,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. That’s where they found the silver Hyundai Santa Fe with a broken rear passenger-side window.
“It was just a fluke,” the sheriff added. “There’s no moral to the story. It was one of those things. It was a good break for us, a real good break.”
Thanks to location tracking, the sheriff’s department arrested Swing. He faces a felony charge for allegedly failing to stop at the scene of a crash with great bodily injury. He could get up to 15 years in prison.
Swing told investigators he fled the scene in a panic because he had previously done time on drug charges.
How did the tracking unfold?
After the accident, a helicopter rushed Lochlan to a hospital for treatment, including 15 staples to close a gash on his leg.
So how did the tracking come about? Lochlan said his girlfriend went to the scene of the crash and found his phone, watch, wallet and and AirPod case with just one AirPod in it. That’s when he realized one was missing.
As soon as he opened the Find My app on his iPhone, he saw an address about 4 miles away. His family called the sheriff’s office, and the arrest followed.
“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.”
