Warning for parents after Florida mom finds AirTag in son's sneaker

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Mom finds AirTag in son's shoe

A Florida mother was floored when she discovered an unknown AirTag hidden in her son's shoes. She soon figured out the mystery after reporting the incident to law enforcement.

A Florida mother had a scare after finding an AirTag in her son's shoe in what she called "every mother’s worst nightmare," according to a report.

Jackie Giurleo realized her son was being tracked through the device, but a subsequent investigation revealed a bizarre mix-up, Fox 35 reported.

Giurleo told the outlet that she did not own any AirTags when she began getting iPhone alerts that one of the devices was nearby at a Christmas parade on Satellite Beach. A map of all the places her son had been popped up on her phone as an undetected AirTag alert, she told the outlet.

She searched through all of her son's clothing and toys, and said her "heart dropped" when she found the device in a quarter-sized hole bored into her son's shoe. She said it had been tracking him for nearly a month. 

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Jackie Giurleo, pictured, told Fox 35 that her "knees gave out" when she found an AirTag in her son's shoe. (Fox 35)

Seven-year-old Aidan told reporters that although he "[goes] a lot of places," he never felt the AirTag in his travels. 

Panicked, Giurleo brought the device to the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, where deputies subpoenaed Apple to get the address of the person who owned the offending tracking device. The answer brought them outside state lines. 

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"I go a lot of places," 7-year-old Aidan told Fox 35. He said he never felt the mysterious AirTag in his shoe.

"Luckily, it just turned into a happy coincidence of a tale of two moms," Giurleo told Fox 35. 

Her son had taken off his shoes at a Christmas parade bounce house. Apparently, he accidentally switched shoes with another boy. 

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After Brevard County Sheriff's deputies subpoenaed Apple for who owned the AirTag, Jackie Giurleo learned that her son had simply switched shoes with another boy at a bounce house by accident. (Fox 35)

"I can remember that I saw one of the kids had the same shoes as me, and I think we put them in the same places, and then we just swapped," Aidan told Fox 35. "I took his, and he took mine."

The other child was visiting Florida from his home in Oklahoma on vacation. His parents had attached an AirTag to the inside of their son's shoe to track him in the case of an emergency. They were the ones "tracking" the Florida boy, but had no clue why or how, Giurleo said. 

Jackie Giurleo shows the hidden compartment in the shoe while her son looks on. (Fox 35)

The mother was relieved that the AirTag mystery was a misunderstanding rather than something more insidious.

"We were really lucky that we had a happy ending," the mom said, according to Fox 35.

Jackie Giurleo said she was relieved that another mother, rather than a criminal, was responsible for the AirTag inside the compartment. (Fox 35)

Giurleo said that, after all this, she learned more than she lost and just might use AirTags herself at theme parks or other crowded places.

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"We have never had AirTags," she said. "I knew about them with luggage and keys and things like that – I never thought about them when it came to tracking your kids."