Lost AirPods recovery adds a feather to Jhelum police cap

ISLAMABAD: In Jhelum, the police launched a search for the AirPods that a British social media influencer had lost in Dubai a year ago. He left them in a hotel he had stayed and has since been looking out for them. Miles Routledge, better known as Lord Miles, activated the Lost Mode on his iPhone for the missing AirPods to monitor and track their use as and when made anywhere.

The signal revealed that they had been flown from Dubai to Pakistan in Kala Gujran, a union council right on the outskirts of Jhelum city. The devices occasionally pinged from near a local restaurant, as their location indicated. With no direct contacts in Pakistan, Miles resorted to social media, posting location updates and tagging the Jhelum Police.

How to locate the user was a daunting task. Tariq Aziz Sindhu, the District Police Officer of Jhelum, ordered the police to narrow down the households with ties to Dubai. It turned out that four men in the area work in Dubai and one of them was in Pakistan to visit his family. The police summoned him to ask about the AirPods and he answered in affirmative but claimed he had purchased them from an Indian in Dubai, unaware they were a stolen asset. Satisfied with the explanation, the police recovered the devices.

Then Miles was contacted to ask whether he would opt to receive them in person by traveling to Pakistan or would share a mailing address for the shipment.

He chose to visit and film the recovery, an intention he also expressed on his social media account.

“I’m going to get a police officer and storm the area, get back my AirPods and film it all. Don’t like thieves,” he tweeted, assuming the police had tracked the suspect and would stage a dramatic raid. Upon arrival, he learned the AirPods were already in custody, and he was instead invited to lunch at a restaurant.

In a televised statement, Miles praised the Jhelum Police, acknowledging their efforts. He remarked that the force had done what “Scotland Yard in London would not do for a British citizen like me.”

He also clarified that the original thief was an Indian, not a Pakistani. Miles has since launched a campaign against Indians calling them thieves. In a post, he claimed the Indian who stole his AirPods has been arrested in Dubai on theft charges.