{"id":2240679,"date":"2026-11-05T13:57:53","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T10:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2240679"},"modified":"2026-11-05T13:57:53","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T10:57:53","slug":"man-catches-thief-with-apple-airtag-hidden-in-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2240679","title":{"rendered":"Man catches thief with Apple AirTag hidden in stone"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/25b4\/live\/7a3b8d20-d920-11f1-ad94-e17fee4cd332.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Matt Smith says people were “miffed” with stones being taken so he had to take action<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A thief who was stealing a wall piece by piece was caught when a man put a tracking device in one of the stones. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Matt Smith said people living near Rufford Old Hall in Lancashire, “were getting a bit miffed” with stones being taken from the 300-year-old boundary wall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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So he put an Apple AirTag – a coin-sized tracking device people attach to keys or wallets in case they lose them – inside one of the stones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Police followed the trail to an address in Wigan, and earlier this month, a man pleaded guilty at Wigan Magistrates’ Court to two counts of theft and one count of handling stolen goods.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Last October, about 30 stones went missing from a half-mile-long stretch of road which connects Holmeswood and Rufford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We looked at installing some CCTV, but it costs and with the wall being attacked at random places at random times, in a half mile stretch of wall, it was going to be hard to cover that area,” Smith, a parish councillor, told BBC Radio Lancashire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"LancashireLancashire Police<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
About 30 stones had gone missing from along a half-mile-long stretch of road which connects Holmeswood and Rufford<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He added: “So we put some lovely ‘smile you’re on camera’ signs up and unfortunately that didn’t deter them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“So I devised a plan and spoke with the owners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We’d noticed it was the smaller of the stones that were being taken, so we put a tracking device in what we thought would maybe be the next stone to be taken.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“So there was a bit of guesswork involved.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Smith said he “lifted a couple of the smaller coping stones off, core drilled into the bottom of those and placed in an Apple AirTag, patched up the core, ground it up, put a bit of resin in” and placed it back on the wall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Lo and behold, four weeks later my phone started to ping with the tracking device on the move to an address in Winstanley in Wigan,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He contacted the police, who went to the address and made an arrest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The coping stones were later returned and the “extremely grateful” residents rebuilt the wall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Last month, Craig Barker, 41, from Wigan, pleaded guilty to theft and handling stolen goods and was given a 12-month sentence, suspended for 22 months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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PC Sean Dalby, of the South Rural Task Force, said: “This case highlights the strong relationships we have developed with our communities and demonstrates the effectiveness of working together to tackle rural and heritage crime. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I would like to thank the local residents for their support throughout the investigation, as well as those who gave their time to rebuild the wall free of charge.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen to the best of <\/i>BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds<\/i> and follow BBC Lancashire on <\/i>Facebook<\/i>, <\/i>X<\/i> and <\/i>Instagram<\/i>. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cq70pdgrk4dyo”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/25b4\/live\/7a3b8d20-d920-11f1-ad94-e17fee4cd332.jpg”] BBC Matt Smith says people were “miffed” with stones being taken so he had to take action A thief who was stealing a wall piece by piece was caught when a man put a tracking device in one of the stones. Matt Smith said people living near Rufford Old Hall in Lancashire, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2240679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2240679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2240679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2240679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2240679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2240679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2240679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}