A San Antonio pickup truck owner whose truck was allegedly stolen used the Apple AirTag app to find his stolen truck, confront the alleged thief, and then shoot the alleged truck thief dead.
KSAT reported that the San Antonio Police Department received a stolen vehicle report at around 1 pm from a home on Braesview, but that the owner was able to track the truck and find it before they arrived. That owner, using an Apple AirTag, tracked the truck to a shopping center in the city.
Once there, the owner confronted the alleged car thief, who was presumably unaware that the truck was traceable via Apple AirTag, before the police arrived. Approaching the stolen truck, the owner saw the alleged thief potentially draw a firearm while sitting in the vehicle. So, thinking quickly to save his life and property, the owner drew his own firearm and fired on the alleged truck thief, killing him.
WRAL quoted San Antonio Police’s Nick Soliz as saying, “They [the truck owner] tried to confront the suspect who they saw in their vehicle. I don’t know if an argument happened but we know that during this time he believes that a firearm may have been pulled by the suspect.”
Soliz added, “If you are to get your vehicle stolen, I know that it’s frustrating, but please do not take matters into your own hands like this.”
Despite that plea, it seems unlikely that citizens, particularly armed ones in states with pro-self-defense legislation like Texas, will sit back and stand by as police do little to protect their property. That’s even more true of cities like San Antonio, which have relatively high crime rates. As NeighborhoodScout reports:
With a crime rate of 50 per one thousand residents, San Antonio has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes – from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One’s chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 20. Within Texas, more than 98% of the communities have a lower crime rate than San Antonio.
Importantly, when you compare San Antonio to other communities of similar population, then San Antonio crime rate (violent and property crimes combined) is quite a bit higher than average. Regardless of how San Antonio does relative to all communities in America of all sizes, when NeighborhoodScout compared it to communities of similar population size, its crime rate per thousand residents stands out as higher than most.
Now let us turn to take a look at how San Antonio does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in San Antonio.
For San Antonio, we found that the violent crime rate is one of the highest in the nation, across communities of all sizes (both large and small). Violent offenses tracked included rape, murder and non-negligent manslaughter, armed robbery, and aggravated assault, including assault with a deadly weapon. According to NeighborhoodScout’s analysis of FBI reported crime data, your chance of becoming a victim of one of these crimes in San Antonio is one in 133.
Significantly, based on the number of murders reported by the FBI and the number of residents living in the city, NeighborhoodScout’s analysis shows that San Antonio experiences one of the higher murder rates in the nation when compared with cities and towns for all sizes of population, from the largest to the smallest.
In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in San Antonio is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In San Antonio, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 24, which is a rate of 42 per one thousand population.
Importantly, we found that San Antonio has one of the highest rates of motor vehicle theft in the nation according to our analysis of FBI crime data. This is compared to communities of all sizes, from the smallest to the largest. In fact, your chance of getting your car stolen if you live in San Antonio is one in 163.
Apple describes the AirTag device, which start at just $29, by saying, “AirTag is a supereasy way to keep track of your stuff. Attach one to your keys. Put another in your backpack. And just like that, they’re on your radar in the Find My app, where you can also track down your Apple devices and keep up with friends and family.”
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