We’re used to reports of people misusing AirTags to track people, but one accused domestic abuser has used his Apple Watch to track his girlfriend…
WSMV4 reports.
A man has been arrested for attaching an Apple Watch to his girlfriend’s car to track her whereabouts, according to an arrest affidavit.
Police said Lawrence Welch, 29, has been charged with attaching an electronic tracking device to his girlfriend’s vehicle. He was arrested on Friday.
According to the affidavit, officers arrived at the Family Safety Center on Murfreesboro Pike after a call from security that the boyfriend and the victim, who was trying to get an order of protection, had showed up at the center.
The victim told police that the boyfriend had threatened to kill her multiple times. She had come to the Family Safety Center in the past. She said she and Welch used the Life360 app to keep tabs on each other’s whereabouts, but that she had deactivated the app before coming to the Family Safety Centers prior and had been receiving texts from him demanding to know her whereabouts and telling her to call him.
9to5Mac’s take
As we’ve noted before, Apple devices are a particularly dumb way to track people illegally given the safeguards in place and the fact that police can use court orders to obtain owner details. Apple cooperates in such cases.
Apple has come under fire following reports of AirTags being misused in this way, but this is just the Apple Effect: other types of trackers have long been misused in this way.
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