Florida teen's dislodged AirPod follows hit-and-run driver's SUV

The fortuitous bounce of a cyclist's AirPod after a horrific crash helped police track down a hit-and-run driver.

A New York Times The report tells the story of 15-year-old Lochlan Nicol from Jensen Beach, Florida, who biked to a gas station on the evening of May 22, 2024, to buy ice cream. An SUV suddenly turning into the station driveway caused the teenager to crash, with Nicol's head going through the rear passenger window.

During the crash, one of the boy's AirPods fell into the SUV, becoming lodged under a floor mat. The driver stopped briefly, but only to move the unconscious and seriously injured Nicol off the road before fleeing the scene.

Nicol suffered fractures to his nose, cheekbone and eye socket, as well as a large gash along his leg. The incident was reported to police and Nicol was taken by helicopter to hospital.

Once informed of the accident, Nicols' girlfriend went to the accident scene and located his wallet, phone, watch and AirPods case. She took the items to the hospital and noticed only one AirPod was in the case.

Nicol was wearing the other AirPod when the accident happened, but it was not recovered. When the teen then opened Find My to try to locate the AirPod, it showed it was at an address about four miles from the crime scene.

The police were contacted and Nicol provided the information.

“It was this earpiece that made it possible to geolocate the suspect’s home in Jensen Beach,” said a sheriff’s spokesperson. “There's no moral to it. It was one of those things. It was a good break for us, a really good break.”

Tracking information provided by the AirPod allowed police to go to a Jensen Beach address with a silver Hyundai Santa Fe with a broken passenger-side rear window. The owner, Peter Bradford Swing, 49, was arrested and the dislodged AirPod was recovered.

He later admitted to police that he had fled the scene because he had previously been imprisoned for drug trafficking. Swing now faces up to 15 years in prison for allegedly failing to stop at the scene of an accident resulting in serious bodily injury, a felony offense.

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