After a Grovetown woman discovered an Apple AirTag in her car, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office is providing more information on what locals should do if they suspect they are being tracked by an AirTag.

The 39-year-old woman called the sheriff’s office on May 16 because she received a notification on her phone that there was an AirTag nearby and it may be tracking her, according to an incident report.

The woman said she tracked the signal to an area in her car near the seatbelt mount on the third seat row, according to the report.

She told deputies she received multiple notifications on her phone going back to December 2023 that she dismissed without checking them, according to the report. She eventually decided to go to the sheriff’s office to have her vehicle checked.

Deputies found the AirTag and it ended up being a family member’s device that they accidentally left it in the car, according to the sheriff’s office.

Following the incident, a Columbia County Sheriff’s Office investigator provided a number of tips for locals who may suspect they are being tracked with an Apple AirTag:

AirTag tracking is not very common

Investigator Philip Clark said the CCSO Criminal Investigations Division only gets about half a dozen cases each year involving an AirTag, that make their way all the way up to investigators.

“AirTags are not one of the best ways to track the public,” Clark said. “If it’s not hitting on Bluetooth, it will not tell you where it is at. For example, if you put an AirTag say in somebody’s bookbag and they take that bookbag somewhere where it’s never pinging off of Bluetooth, it’ll never give you a location for it. They’re not really that good for tracking and people don’t use them a lot for that.”

How to find an AirTag after being notified it is nearby

Clark said most AirTags will make a little chirping or beeping noise, making them easy to find.

“I’ve actually had one person that kept hearing it chirp in the back of her vehicle and we located it up in the plastic compartment inside of the tailgate on the SUV,” he said. “We’ve found them in bookbags, vehicles – we find them all kinds of places.”

However, Clark said just because a person receives a notification that one is nearby, doesn’t mean it is being used to track them.

“I had a recent case where somebody turned into an apartment complex and they got a notification that there was an AirTag near them,” he said. “It may not even be somebody tracking you, it could be that the AirTag just picked up your Bluetooth. If you are inside of a store shopping and somebody has an AirTag and your Bluetooth is on, it’s going to pick up the Bluetooth on your phone and your phone will tell you that there’s an AirTag near you.”

The best way to discern if the AirTag is tracking someone’s movement is to check if the distance changes.

“Once it tells you there’s an AirTag, if it stays in the area, sometimes it’ll tell you how many meters or feet it is from your phone, so you can track if it moves [with you],” Clark said. “There’s also an alert you can make the AirTag set off so it will make a noise and you can find it.”

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What to do if you think you are being tracked with an AirTag

If someone is concerned they are being tracked or they are repeatedly receiving notifications on their phone, Clark said they should call the sheriff’s office for assistance in finding it.

“If you can’t locate it, give us a call and let us come out there and at least look for it and have a report made,” he said. “Even if you do find it, call us because every AirTag has its own unique serial number and we can get the serial number, subpoena Apple and they will tell us who purchased, registered and was tracking that AirTag. Definitely call us if you think somebody’s trying to track you and we can get the serial number and find out who’s doing it.”

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: What to do if you think you are being tracked by an Apple AirTag