Mom finds AirTag in son's shoe
A Florida mother was stunned when she discovered an unknown AirTag hidden in her son's shoes. She quickly figured out the mystery after reporting the incident to law enforcement.
A Florida mother was left scared after finding an AirTag in her son's shoe in what she called “every mother's worst nightmare,” according to a report.
Jackie Giurleo realized her son was being tracked via the device, but a subsequent investigation revealed a strange mix-up, Fox 35 reported.
Giurleo told the outlet that she didn't own any AirTags when she started getting alerts of where her son was during a Christmas parade on Satellite Beach.
She searched through all of her son's clothes and toys and said her “heart broke” when she found the device in a quarter-sized hole punched in her son's shoe. She said he had been following him for almost a month.
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Jackie Giurleo, pictured, told Fox 35 that her “knees gave way” when she found an AirTag in her son's shoe. (Fox 35)
Seven-year-old Aidan told reporters that although he “[goes] in many places”, he never felt the AirTag during his travels.
Panicked, Giurleo took the device to the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, where deputies subpoenaed Apple to obtain the address of the person who owned the offending tracking device. The response took them beyond state lines.
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“I go a lot of places,” Aidan, 7, told Fox 35. He said he has never felt the mysterious AirTag in his shoe.
“Luckily, it turned into a happy coincidence between two moms,” Giurleo told Fox 35.
Her son took off his shoes during an inflatable for the Christmas parade. Apparently he accidentally changed shoes with another boy.
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After Brevard County sheriff's deputies subpoenaed Apple to find out who the AirTag belonged to, Jackie Giurleo learned that her son had simply changed shoes with another boy in a bounce house by accident. (Fox 35)
“I remember seeing that one of the kids had the same shoes as me, and I think we put them in the same places and then we just swapped,” Aidan told Fox 35. “I took the his and he took mine.”
The other child was vacationing in Florida from his home in Oklahoma. His parents had attached an AirTag to the inside of their son's shoe to track him in case of an emergency. They were the ones “stalking” the Florida boy, but they had no idea why or how, Giurleo said.
Jackie Giurleo shows the hidden compartment in the shoe in front of her son. (Fox 35)
The mother was relieved that the AirTag mystery was a misunderstanding rather than something more insidious.
“We were really lucky to have a happy ending,” the mom said, according to Fox 35.
Jackie Giurleo said she was relieved that another mother, rather than a criminal, was responsible for the AirTag inside the compartment. (Fox 35)
Giurleo said that after all that, she learned more than she lost, and that she may well use AirTags herself in theme parks or other busy places.
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“We never had AirTags,” she said. “I knew them with their luggage and their keys and things like that – I never thought about that when it came to following your kids.”