Stolen Stolen- Selmer Mark VI tenor, Serial 64608 $500 reward

[Jeanette]

Thanks for letting us know the outcome, so pleased you got it back.


Jx

 

[Trigger]

It might be a good idea if sending a saxophone to get repaired et cetera to fix a Apple tag inside the Belc. At least you can trace each journey till it gets discovered if stolen.

 

[greenstripe]

It might be a good idea if sending a saxophone to get repaired et cetera to fix a Apple tag inside the Belc. At least you can trace each journey till it gets discovered if stolen.

Personally I wouldn't attach an air tag to the instrument itself. better in a separate compartment in the case. It's liable to get dislodged in transit if thrown around and could cause damage -they also have batteries in CR2032.

You also have a better chance of reception between the air tag and the phones it is pinging from and too as the saxophone will probably create a Faraday Cage effect blocking the tag's low power radio

If I was going to be covert, I would find a way to slip one in to the lining of the case: unstitch and sew back up again etc.

 

[Pete Thomas]

If I was going to be covert, I would find a way to slip one in to the lining of the case: unstitch and sew back up again etc.

Yes exactly. professional thieves would look for AirTags. In fact even if it's hidden inside the lining all they need is an iPhone and they can tell if an AirTag is in the vicinity.

When I had my car stolen, the police advised to look for it in the neighbourhood.

Thieves steal a car, leave it a few streets away and wait for a while. That way they could tell if it had a tracker because you'd just come and pick it up. If you didn't find it and take it home, they knew there was no tracker so safe to take it away.

 

[greenstripe]

Just as point of note. Although Airtags are an Apple branded product -they can be detected and work with other devices (Android etc.) and additionally there are other brands of similar products -Tile being the main one that has been around a lot longer than.

As often seems the case, Apple seems to get the public's interest and makes technology popular where others have been less successful.

 

[mizmar]

---

there are other brands of similar products...Tile being the main one....

The apple tags, as I understand, use anyone's iPhone to relay location - that's almost half the mobiles in the wild. Tile just uses your phone and, maybe others who happen to have their app installed.. which is very small.

Apple's AirTag relies on a feature no competitor can match: 1 billion iPhones

AirTag's most important differentiating feature isn't the technology inside the $29 coin-sized stainless steel gadget. It's other people's iPhones.

www.cnbc.com

Further, airtags use both Bluetooth (so Android can see them) and Ultra Wideband radios (which android phones mostly can't see) for much better functionality.

I'm no Apple fan'boi but, on the one hand, Apples threshold for releasing something new is higher than most others. Like, sure, Bluetooth ear buds have been around for a while, but the Apple product substantially upped the functionality and quality... Only Apple, owning the whole system, end-to-end could decide to put UWB in its phones and devices.

 

[Trigger]

Yes, you’re probably right about putting in the case, but it was just an idea to put out there

 

[Targa]

---

The apple tags, as I understand, use anyone's iPhone to relay location - that's almost half the mobiles in the wild. Tile just uses your phone and, maybe others who happen to have their app installed.. which is very small.

If those mobiles have escaped or been released into the wild by activists it's a good thing there is a way of tracing their locations before they cause damage to the local flora and fauna.

 

[Marks]

Am I reading this correctly that there is a racket going on where a music shop is fencing stolen instruments using the FedEx network? It sounds like a fairly sophisticated operation.

The shop manager had no idea this was going on and she was the one that isolated and locked up my box. They have dozens of employees so I can see how one person may have been not great. We've all had amazing and lousy employees and/or coworkers. I think 2 people are in trouble, one in CO and one in CA.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I think 2 people are in trouble, one in CO and one in CA.

Every thief needs a fence and every fence needs a thief.

Or more than one.

Maybe it was a heist in which case I think it is eleven? But then, like Italian Job, you also need the mastermind who's banged up being served elevenses by the warden.

 

[Phil]

Being someone who worked in the criminal justice system for years Id say most things stolen are stolen by idiots. I think the hidden tracker is a good idea but I dont know how long they stay charged for in terms of waiting for a repair and return. Its also possible that the ones that get caught are idiots.

 

[greenstripe]

Being someone who worked in the criminal justice system for years Id say most things stolen are stolen by idiots. I think the hidden tracker is a good idea but I dont know how long they stay charged for in terms of waiting for a repair and return. Its also possible that the ones that get caught are idiots.

Most trackers of this type have a typical battery life of about 1 year.

 

[Targa]

Being someone who worked in the criminal justice system for years

Sewing mailbags?

 

[greenstripe]

---

The apple tags, as I understand, use anyone's iPhone to relay location - that's almost half the mobiles in the wild. Tile just uses your phone and, maybe others who happen to have their app installed.. which is very small.


Further, airtags use both Bluetooth (so Android can see them) and Ultra Wideband radios (which android phones mostly can't see) for much better functionality.

I'm no Apple fan'boi but, on the one hand, Apples threshold for releasing something new is higher than most others. Like, sure, Bluetooth ear buds have been around for a while, but the Apple product substantially upped the functionality and quality... Only Apple, owning the whole system, end-to-end could decide to put UWB in its phones and devices.

OWB is an open consortium with many big names onboard, check out:

FiRa Consortium

The FiRa Consortium is dedicated to the development and widespread adoption of seamless user experiences using the secured fine ranging and positioning capabilities of interoperable Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) technologies.

www.firaconsortium.org

True Apple were the first to put UWB in a phone. Now others have jumped on the bandwagon since. Samsung and Google and Xiaomi plus others also have got in on the act the last couple of years.

Samsung have their own system that is very similar to Apple with their Galaxy Smart Tags.

I mentioned Tile because some of their tags also work with Amazon Sidewalk in the US, (which in itself is rather contentious) meaning they can ping off Alexas and Ring doorbells.

 

[mizmar]

Sure. But, as far as I can tell, you still won't get the kind of coverage that airtag can offer right now. I have a pixel 7a - no uwb and absolutely no reason to enable uwb if it was there... And I bet few pixel etc. owners even know that.

 

[saxyjt]

It sounds to me that this whole tracking system is based on people who don't know or care about what's active on their phones by default. Probably 80% of users. Probably good enough.

I should run a quick survey at home to see. 3 iphone users, 2 Android. I bet the iphone users have all the defaults on, while the android users switch things on and off as required... I do and I'm guessing my son who's also a convinced Linux/open source user does the same.

There's so much going on trying to stay under the radar... Scary. If I manage to sail away fast enough I may evade the system... while offshore!

 

[PigSquealer]

Once a thief is caught they should get a tracking device implant. That’s better than the old-school way of cutting a finger off. Third offense the hand was removed.