AirPods track suspected driver in Florida hit-and-run

AirPods are great headphones, but did you know they can also fight crime? One in Florida tracked a suspected hit-and-run driver after a teen on a bike's head went through his passenger window and the earpiece came out and got stuck under a floor mat.

Locating this little earpiece led directly to a felony arrest.

Teen's dislodged AirPod follows suspected hit-and-run driver in Florida

Lochlan Nicol, 15, recently biked to a gas station to buy ice cream in Jensen Beach, Florida. But an SUV hit him as he turned into the station's driveway, The New York Times reported Wednesday. And from there, a most unusual crime-solving story unfolded.

The incident happened around 10:30 p.m. on May 22. Lochlan's head crashed through the rear passenger window of the SUV, knocking him unconscious and fracturing his nose, cheekbone and eye socket.

The driver paused, but only to move Lochlan off the road and leave him in front of the gas station, according to the Martin County Sheriff. Then the driver fled, according to the sheriff.

AirPods lead to felony arrest

Only the AirPod allowed investigators to find him. The small white earpiece was torn from Lochlan's head and lodged under a floor mat in the car. The driver probably never noticed it.

“It was this earpiece that made it possible to geolocate the suspect’s home in Jensen Beach,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. That's where they found the silver Hyundai Santa Fe with a broken rear passenger side window.

“It was just a coincidence,” the sheriff added. “There is no moral in this story. It was one of those things. It was a good break for us, a real good break.

Using location tracking, the Sheriff's Department arrested Peter Bradford Swing, 49, of Jensen Beach. The charge is a felony: failing to stop at the scene of an accident with serious bodily injury. He faces up to 15 years in prison.

Swing told investigators he fled the scene in panic because he had already served time for drug charges.

How did the follow-up take place?

A helicopter took Lochlan to hospital for treatment, including 15 staples in a gash in his leg.

So how did the follow-up go? Lochland said his girlfriend went to the accident scene and found his phone, watch, wallet and AirPod case containing a single AirPod. That's when he realized one was missing.

As soon as he opened the Find My app on his iPhone, he saw an address about four miles away. His family called the sheriff's office and the arrest followed.

“It’s honestly amazing,” said Lochlan’s father, Derek Nicol. “People say it’s karma. So maybe it's karma that this happened. It's just weird.