An Army wife shares her experience after using an AirTag to keep tabs on her family’s belongings during a relocation. The AirTag proved to be a vital tool in this case, as a moving truck driver told her that their items will not be delivered on the set date, and the reason behind it turned out to be a lie.
As they are making their permanent change of station (PCS) move from Fort Carson, Colorado to Fort Drum, New York, Valerie McNulty was concerned about lost or delayed items, so she cleverly thought of using a tracking device to help track down her family’s household stuff. Before the move, she attached an Apple AirTag to one of the boxes.
She told Military Times, “You hear so many horror stories when it comes to PCSing. With those stories in mind, and having read about people putting AirTags with some of their HHG, I decided it would be worth testing the theory.”
She placed the AirTag, a small Bluetooth tracker you can locate by means of another Apple device like an iPad, iPhone or MacBook, inside a box of her son’s toys.
This is their fourth PCS, two full do-it-yourself moves and two partial.
McNulty said, “Our prior partial PCS, we were very fortunate. All of our items were delivered when they were supposed to be and very few household goods were broken. This PCS was a very different story.”
After the expected delivery date on Friday, January 7 did not happen, the moving company told McNulty to expect the delivery the next day.
When McNulty turned on the AirTag, she was able to confirm that her family’s belongings were only four hours away (in Elizabeth, New Jersey).
However, a few hours after the call, the truck driver transporting their belongings called her to say that he had just picked up their shipment in Colorado, and the earliest he could get it to them would be Monday.
Surprised, she confronted the unnamed driver about being just a few hours away, but then he hung up on her. “I made him aware that I knew he was only four hours away from us. He called back several minutes later trying to bargain with me to see if he could deliver it on Sunday or Monday.”
Afterwards, McNulty informed the moving company, but the company said they were reportedly unaware of the driver’s location. She said, “At this point, I had more information than they did all because of my AirTag.”
The driver called back, and this time he claimed he was at his girlfriend’s house. He told McNulty, “I didn’t know you could track me, I’m going to go see my lady. I can still have your HHG to you by tomorrow, but I will have to hustle.”
She suggested he do that, and continued to track his whereabouts until their belongings arrived. McNulty shared her experience on her Facebook page, which went viral, getting more than 4,500 shares.
She said, “You read so many stories about lost or missing HHG and this is part of the problem. Instead of waiting for someone to change something I took matters into my own hands. I hope the word spreads, I hope other military families hear our story and they, too, add AirTags to their HHG.”