At various points in the past year, both of my elderly parents have lost their wallets. As is always the case when this kind of thing happens, it was a huge pain.
Going forward, I’d like to be able to track their wallets using Apple’s Find My. It seems like there are two kinds of options for this.
My concern with these products is that they’re somewhat easily identifiable as trackers. So if one of my parents were to lose their wallet again, and someone dishonest finds it and plans to keep it, they can simply go through the contents and dispose of this tracking card.
An alternative, it seems, would be the AirTag wallets made by companies like Geometric Goods. The thing I like about these is that there is a hidden compartment for the AirTag, which means that someone who finds the wallet is perhaps less likely to be aware that the wallet is being tracked.
Do folks have any experience with or thoughts on these options, or perhaps other options that I’m not considering?
Bear in mind that either way if the thief has an iPhone with him as he walks around with your parent’s wallet he’ll soon be warned that “an AirTag is moving with him”. In Apple’s addressing very legitimate concerns about the potential abuse of AirTags as stalking devices their value in scenarios such as you describe has been much reduced
That’s a very good point. Although, as you mention, it’s likely only relevant if the person has an iPhone. Do you know the timeframe for this warning popping up? Are we talking like 15 minutes or 24 hours?
I would expect a thief to take what he wants from the wallet and discard it within minutes. So tracking the wallet, IMO, would only be helpful to find a lost wallet.
In my experience it’s pretty quick – within tens of minutes. As others have said the “Find My” system really is more designed for lost rather than stolen items and the assumption the finder will act in good faith
Depending on what the thief thinks he can use immediately or sell there might be things in that “emptied” wallet that you want. Also, you’d know if it was lost or stolen.
I had a recent experience where I got back to the car after a walk in a large park to find I no longer had my iPhone. Retracing steps did not help. When I got to some wifi a few minutes later, my iPad showed it moving across the park to the cafe/visitors’ centre. A very kind person had found it and taken it there so I could collect it.
Yeah, I should probably clarify that the most likely scenario is the wallet simply being lost, e.g. my parents leaving it in a hotel, on a plane, at a cafe, etc… (Several of which have happened in the past year.) Or my parents simply misplacing it in their home and being unable to find it. As opposed to theft.
So I guess with that in mind, maybe a tracking card would work as well as the wallet solution, and maybe I shouldn’t be basing my solution as much on whether the tracking mechanism would be detected. Hmmm.
I also think in situations like this the bigger concern, for me personally and I think for my parents, is generally losing things like licenses and cards, as opposed to cash. Yes, losing money sucks, but not as much as having to spend hours and hours dealing with getting new cards and updating your info.
When it comes to any sort of security, the question is not a matter of if but when. Your starting premise should be that given enough time, whatever system you devise will be breached by a bad actor.
So, as an example, I don’t use a bike lock because I believe it will stop a determined thief–I use it because I believe I can sufficiently deter someone from taking my bike within a given time frame. The longer my bike is unattended, the less secure it is (locks being only for honest people and all that). This is also why the best thing I can do is lock up next to other bikes that are less well secured than my own. You know the adage: you don’t have to outrun the bear, just your friend.
In this case, assume that if the wallets are stolen, any tracker will be discovered. Whether that’s because it beeps or the thief thinks the weird AirTag lump is actually hidden treasure, you’re better off assuming it will be found. And, as others have pointed out, the first thing a thief will do is take the contents and dispose of the wallet itself. A wallet tracker will only offer protection if you realize the wallet is missing immediately or very soon after it’s been taken, and are prepared to go get it back right away. If I were considering this for my own mother, there’s a good chance she wouldn’t even realize her wallet was missing until the next time she needed it for something, which could take a day or two even if she had alerts set up on her phone.
Now, on the other hand, a tracker is a fantastic little device for locating misplaced items, which also happens to be the more likely event to occur. I would consult with your parents about what would work best with their existing wallets/edc, but that eufy card looks promising to me.
It also sounds like it would be worthwhile to make and secure copies of their personal identifying documents, make sure the security on their cards is up to date, and secure copies of their login credentials so you can help them lock things down in case wallets do get stolen or permanently lost. Peace of mind will be just as valuable in the event your parents have to go through the trouble of replacing anything important, and it’ll also reduce headaches considerably.