They don’t need to leave their phone in their car or even have a phone themselves. If any iPhone sees the device from ~30 feet away it reports back to Apple where it saw it. So even passing traffic was likely to report where the tracker was. Unless the tracker is moved while no phones are near it, Apple knows where it is
How far is “close”? Unless these people left their phone in their car, it eould have to be more than 30 feet like bluetooth, right?
They don’t need to leave their phone in their car or even have a phone themselves. If any iPhone sees the device from ~30 feet away it reports back to Apple where it saw it. So even passing traffic was likely to report where the tracker was. Unless the tracker is moved while no phones are near it, Apple knows where it is
10-30 meters from airtag to the random apple device, pending environment conditions.