What you need to know
- A woman used her Apple Watch to call for help when she was handcuffed during a home invasion.
- The woman was able to text her mother while her attacker rummaged through her belongings.
We've heard tons of stories about Apple Watches saving lives, but they usually involve the wearable's health-related features. This time an Apple Watch helped a handcuffed woman contact her mum while a home invader rummaged through her belongings.
According to local reports, the West Milford, NJ woman came home to find a man in her room. After demanding money, the man handcuffed the woman to a bed at which point she was able to use her Apple Watch to text her mother. Police later arrived just as the man was leaving.
After being held captive for more than an hour, the victim complained she was cold sitting on the floor, according to her statements to police.This led Canning to handcuff her to a bed, leaving one of her hands free, the affidavit states, and allowed the daughter to text her mother using her watch and told her to call the police.
Amazingly, the woman's mother was upstairs throughout — seemingly unaware of what was going on.
The mother came downstairs to check on her daughter, unsure whether the message was serious. She was met by Canning who pointed the airsoft gun, which she and her daughter believed to be a lethal firearm, at her and again demanded money, records claim.
Thankfully the police were able to apprehend the man, at which point they also found car keys belonging to the woman's neighbor.
While these stories tend to involve features like the ECG app found on Apple Watch Series 6, the woman's quick thinking was enough to outsmart the home invader and save the day.
Sending and receiving messages is one of the best Apple Watch features that most people don't make enough use of. Thankfully that wasn't the case here!
