A business owner was able to track down an alleged thief who had stolen thousands of dollars of items after putting Apple AirTag trackers on his merchandise.
Michael Sullivan, the operations manager for Roger’s Garden, told KABC-TV that the nursery in Newport Beach had been hit by a thief several times, and he was caught on video, but police were unable to do anything about it.
“We have security cameras all over the store including our parking lot,” Sullivan said.
He provided KABC with footage from one incident where the man stole potted plants and trees on Oct. 12. Police responded by increasing their patrol rounds near the business, but it didn’t help.
“We’re frustrated. We’re losing things,” Sullivan said. “He’s taking a large fountain that’s about 150 pounds, pots that are $300 each – large, expensive things.”
The man struck two other times in the weeks afterward before Sullivan decided to take action. Some of the pots stolen cost as much as $300 each.
On Nov. 16, the alleged thief stole some more items including a bench, but Sullivan had hidden some trackers in the items, hoping the thief would be caught in the snare. He said one of the trackers indicated movement, and he contacted the police.
“I saw one of the AirTags had moved to a location in Irvine, so I had the address at that point. I took a screenshot of it and I sent it to the detectives at 2 in the morning,” he explained.
Police said they went to the address and found what they described as a “a sanctuary of stolen greenery” with many of the alleged stolen items in the man’s front yard.
“Every single thing in his front yard was like our pots, our fountain, our plants,” Sullivan said. “The entire front yard. A bench from out front. The entire front yard was – it was basically decorated with our stuff that we were missing.”
Police said they recovered about $8,000 worth of stolen merchandise and filed four felony grand theft charges against him.
Sullivan had a message for other thieves.
“There seems to be a kind of apathy with a lot of retailers where they sort of like let it happen or look the other way or that’s a cost of doing business,” Sullivan said. “We disagree with that approach. We are going after anyone that takes something from us.”
Here’s a local news report about the incident:
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