My stolen airpods are at an address about 100km from where I live. WWYD?

[franke]

That's it really. I left my airpods on a flight to the UK (I'm in mainland Europe). They were then picked up by someone who went on holiday in the UK. The airpods showed up on the findmy app as far as the airport of departure where the trail went cold. Several weeks on, they have now turned up in my home country at an address about 100km from here. The house has three apartments in it. What would you do?

I’d go to the apartments. Did you report them as stolen or missing on the find my app?

I would do nothing.

Would the police do anything? Long shot, but worth a try.

You could always try going to the address, but they could be aggressive thugs.

Is there an option to somehow disable them remotely, like you can with a phone? At least the thief wouldn't get the benefit of them

Given they are so far away, I'd write them off. It's not like you can just pop to the apartment building.

To be fair they found them, yes should have handed in, but they did not go and steal them off her.

Well what do you want to do, or feel able to do

Theres only two options isnt there, you either go there and try to knock on all the doors and ask for them or you do nothing

Given you left them on the plane by mistake I would write them off.

I’d buy a new pair of AirPods.

Can you claim on your house insurance?.
I have insured a lot of my expensive items insured for when out of the house.

Another vote for buying new airpods.

I had this with my stolen phone, and reported the address shown to the police. They just gave me a standard response- the Apple 'find my' isn't 100% accurate and it could be the next house and everyone in each flat will deny it's them. Bla bla.

I could have gone up there myself but didn't fancy getting stabbed 🤷🏻‍♀️

I would send a letter to each of the addresses saying 'My AirPods are showing as being at this address. I assume you found them after I lost them on flight xyz. Thank you. Please message me at (phone number) to arrange return of them and I will fully reimburse you the postage"

Not everyone can afford to just replace AirPods. I couldn't.

They weren't actually stolen as opposed to found. I would post a letter to each home owner along the lines of 'I'm so grateful you have found my air pods, please return them to etc etc'

The fact your telling them you know where they are might be enough for them to return them if it's just someone who's picked them up

They weren’t stolen you left them and some one found them
granted they could of handed them in but if they did I doubt the chance of them getting back to you

considering it’s apartments and it a 200km round trip so that would cost you between £30 and £40 I wouldn’t bother

I would post a letter to each home owner along the lines of 'I'm so grateful you have found my air pods, please return them to etc etc'

I would post a letter saying I have an extremely contagious ear infection

Thanks for all these replies.

Unfortunately airpods can't be disabled like phones. I reported the loss in the findmy app but have had no response.

I take the point regarding stolen vs found. I asked friends here about attitudes to finders keepers - they were clear that the airpods do not belong to whoever picked them up. I left them somewhere near where I was sitting on the plane, so they were probably on the floor or seat. I'm pretty sure it was the guy sitting next to me (I was in the middle) who will have picked them up, but obviously no hard evidence.

I don't want to go there myself for all the reasons pp have stated. I might ask the police for advice - they're quite helpful in the whole. But I wouldn't expect the local police to do anything.

The letter is a good idea - I think that's all I can realistically do.

@JaneJeffer I like the cut of your jib 😂

Thanks all.

lol, what a coincidence

Mmm it's a difficult one. I had this with DS Airpods when he dropped them outside the school. They eventually turned up at a house around the corner. We sent a message via the app, saying thank for finding them, can you please return to school reception... they didn't and DS did not want to, or want me to, confront another pupil so we just bought a cheaper Tesco version. I still feel really aggrieved about them but maybe it was a lesson learned to be more careful.

I just think anyone that would pick up and use pre-used earphones are so disgusting! I wouldn't go there, OP, you might catch something...

They won't reply to the letter.

Well, in view of the fact you left them somewhere I don't think that's the same as 'stolen'. Someone has thought oh look a lucky find has been discarded. The thought of putting anything in my ear that's been in someone else's ear makes me feel repulsed and physically sick. So anyone happy to do that is, in my mind unhygienic anyway and I'd write them off as lost tainted goods.

Have you made an insurance claim?

AirPods look the same as other AirPods. Is it possible they thought they were there’s or a family members. Go over, see how they look and if they look respectable enough or not and then you know wether or not to ask

Can you find out who lives in the flats via the electoral roll or similar? Then check Facebook or Instagram to see if there are holiday photos showing from the right time period?. Then you can write

You won’t get the pods back but you’ll give someone a really nasty moment