TIMONIUM, Md. — Courtney Russell is a widow and single mother.
She met up with her in-laws at Sam's Club in Timonium, so they could exchange gifts and babysit her son.
While she was trying to put him in his uncle’s car, someone else was stealing hers.
“There’s no way he’s stealing my car and then after a second I’m like, he’s stealing my car," says Courtney.
Before she could realize it, he was gone.
“The moment he [saw] that I got my son out of the vehicle, he dashed in my car and sped off," she said.
Courtney also realized her phone was still in the car.
Her brother in law immediately called 911.
Meanwhile, a friend of Russell’s tracked her phone and police were able to find it, but not her car.
“The officers went and somehow found my phone on the side of 83 and it wasn’t destroyed," says Courtney Russell.
With her phone in tact, she remembered she had an AirTag attached to her car keys, and she was able to find the location of her stolen car.
When WMAR reached out to Baltimore County Police about the incident, they said quote:
“AirTags are an excellent tool for assisting in the recovery of lost or stolen property. If an AirTag is in a stolen vehicle, please share that information with the responding officer. The technology may assist in the recovery of the stolen property.”
“I refreshed it and it gives me the exact address of where my car was, well I'm sorry, where my keys were at and logically that’s probably where my car is," says Russell.
While Baltimore County Police say having a tracker like an AirTag is beneficial, there are things to keep in mind;
“A person can take advantage of today's technology to locate their stolen vehicles, but should never attempt to recover it without police assistance. If they tried to recover it on their own, they could inadvertently put themselves in harm's way.”
Courtney met up with police in Baltimore City.
Her car was on North Avenue.
She had it towed since her keys were not with the car.
Courtney says she found the AirTag the next day after it was thrown out in the same location.
“I am grateful that I had that AirTag because I don’t think I would have gotten off so lucky," she says.
Courtney now recommends other single mothers buy a tracker for their car since she was able to get hers back.
“I’m blessed that my son is safe that’s the most important part," says Courtney.
Although Courtney found the AirTag and her car, she was never able to find her set of keys.
She says she had to spend over $400 to replace they car keys, her house keys and her mail key.
Baltimore County Police have not located a suspect at this time.
