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Stolen e-bike recovered almost two years later thanks to Apple AirTag

James LaChapelle’s e-bike was stolen from the Basin Recreation Fieldhouse in the summer of 2021. His bike was recovered two years later thanks to an Apple AirTag.
James LaChapelle
James LaChapelle’s e-bike was stolen from the Basin Recreation Fieldhouse in the summer of 2021. His bike was recovered two years later thanks to an Apple AirTag.

A local man had his e-bike stolen from the parking lot of Basin Recreation in the summer of 2021. This month, a Summit County Sheriff’s deputy helped recover it.

James LaChapelle said he went to the Basin Recreation Fieldhouse late morning on July 27 riding his TREK Powerfly 5 full suspension e-bike. When he arrived, he cabled and locked his bike and walked over to Smith’s for a quick errand. He said, “I thought leaving my bike in front of the fieldhouse would be safer than Smith’s.”

A thief, caught on Basin Recreation surveillance footage, used bolt cutters to cut the cable and steal LaChapelle’s bike. Summit County Sgt. Tim Berger said the footage was too grainy to get a good description of the thief.
Basin Recreation
A thief, caught on Basin Recreation surveillance footage, used bolt cutters to cut the cable and steal LaChapelle’s bike. Summit County Sgt. Tim Berger said the footage was too grainy to get a good description of the thief.

Based on security camera footage, moments after LaChapelle returned to the fieldhouse and went inside, a man with a bag walked up to LaChapelle’s bike, took out a large bolt cutter, cut the cable and stole the bike.

LaChapelle said when he came out of the fieldhouse a couple of hours later, his bike was gone - and thus began the two-year AirTag ping odyssey.

LaChapelle had installed a $29 Apple AirTag into the battery compartment on his bike. AirTags are tracking devices just over an inch in diameter that emit Bluetooth signals that anonymously connect to any nearby device active within Apple’s Find My network.

According to LaChapelle, based on the initial AirTag pings, the thief brought the bike to an apartment building in West Valley City but LaChapelle couldn’t tell which apartment unit.

LaChapelle said he searched the area with West Valley City Police officers shortly after it was stolen but the bike’s location was unclear because the device pings only when it’s around another iPhone.

Over the next few months, LaChapelle received pings from various nearby addresses depending on where an iPhone came near the bike. On one occasion the AirTag pinged that the bike was near Solitude. LaChapelle tried to go after it but by the time he got to the location the bike was gone and back in West Valley.

Tim Berger is a sergeant with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office. He said last week Deputy Vince Nyguen with the Special Enforcement Unit learned about the missing bike and the tracking device from an employee at Storm Cycle in Kimball Junction.

“And one of the members there at Storm Cycle was like, 'Hey, you know, we have an older gentleman that came in and was telling us about this bicycle that he had stolen, and that he actually has a GPS tracker on it,' which to my knowledge was never brought up two years ago when the actual theft took place.”

LaChapelle’s bike is currently at the Summit County Justice Center awaiting his return from vacation. The icon in the photo is of the AirTag GPS locator ping which shows the bike’s location.
James LaChapelle
LaChapelle’s bike is currently at the Summit County Justice Center awaiting his return from vacation. The icon in the photo is of the AirTag GPS locator ping which shows the bike’s location.

This tip led Nyguen to LaChapelle and the two worked together to gather the latest AirTag ping location which led them to people who had purchased the bike. They said they didn’t know it was stolen and promptly gave it to deputies.

“So obviously, we're not going to hold them accountable at that point for having stolen property. So we explained to them and they happily handed over the property, you know, even though they're out, you know, a few thousand dollars for that specific bike when they purchased it.”

Berger said there is no simple way to know whether a used item is stolen, but he said calling local law enforcement could get a courtesy check on items that have a serial number.

He said that wouldn’t account for items that have been stolen and not reported, so it’s not foolproof. His best advice is if the offer is too good to be true then steer clear.

People buying used items can also ask sellers for receipts or records of purchase as a way to check whether they’re buying something from its rightful owner. Of course not everyone keeps receipts, but asking a few questions about where and when something was purchased might flag a potential suspicious sale.

Even though it took two years to find LaChapelle’s bike, Berger said a GPS tracker is an added layer of protection to prevent theft.

“And you can put these on any type of property, as long as you have a good way of keeping that GPS unit charged. That's the only caveat to these GPS units is they only hold the charge for so long. That's what's really nice about the e-bikes is sometimes you can tap right into the e-bike's power source. And as long as the e-bike is powered up, then you're getting constant power to your GPS unit as well.”

There are various GPS tracking devices that operate with different types of smart phones. They range in price from $29 to $129.

LaChapelle’s e-bike is currently parked at the sheriff’s office until he returns from vacation.