What you need to know
- The Find My app was used by police to track a carjacking.
- A stolen iPad was activated and allowed officers to track down and chase the suspects.
- The chase ended when the fugitives ran a red light and drove into a freight truck.
Police used the Find My app on a home invasion victim's iPad to track two fugitves during a fatal chase on February 4th in Melbourne, Australia.
Reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, Vaatoa Chang and Jonas Montealegre stole an iPad during a home invasion before carjacking a Mitsubishi Triton. The two men were tracked by police using the Find My app on the device, even as they switched cars and led officers through multiple towns.
"Two men killed during a police chase in Melbourne's north were being tracked from the air via the 'Find My' app after an iPad was stolen in an earlier home invasion. Driver Vaatoa Chang, 29, from Sunshine West, and his Caroline Springs passenger Jonas Montealegre, 36, carried the iPad with them as they switched stolen cars in a two-hour attempt to flee police on February 4."
The victim of the home invastion and the owner of the iPad apparently used the Find My app on another one of his Apple devices to track the iPad and the stolen car. The police then took over the chase, using the Find My app to track the Triton and eventually a Toyota Kluger that the two men stole after abandoning the first vehicle.
"Mr Spence said the victim opened his tracking app, which pinged the iPad, and he began following his stolen Triton. Police called him off before officers tracked the ute and iPad to the Glengala Hotel in Sunshine. The police air wing was called in, but when officers arrived at the scene the ute had been dumped. The iPad, though, began pinging inside the Toyota Kluger."
Just before 10pm the two men ran a red light and drove into a freight truck, causing the truck to fall over onto another car. While the drivers of the truck and other car escaped with minor injures, both men in the Kluger died at the scene.
You can read the full report from The Sydney Morning Herald.
