Over the weekend, my family went to a local pumpkin patch for some fall fun. A few years ago, we lost my then-six-year-old son in a very extensive corn maze because he ran ahead and I’m not kidding when I say this corn maze was way bigger than it looked. It took a good 15 minutes to find him and we were all freaking out. I never want to go through that again, so this year, we put Apple Air Tags in my kids’ pockets just in case. At some point, my older son’s fell out of his pocket while he was running around. When we looked up its location later that evening funnily enough, it was in the middle of the maze.
This is a long preamble to a story about Joel McHale, his Apple Watch, and the “Find My Device” feature that Apple devices do so well. This past weekend, Joel was on a flight from LAX to Newark Airport in New Jersey. During the flight, he took his Apple Watch off and somehow managed to either forget to put it back on or not realize that it had fallen out of wherever he’d left it. When he realized that it was missing, Joel used the “Find My” feature and discovered that it was in a house somewhere in Newark, NJ. For proof of life, Joel posted a picture of the address that the watch was located at, as well as an image that drew a line between how close the home was to Newark Airport. He also left a snarky comment daring the person who had it to guess the correct passcode.
Rode on extremely pleasant JetBlue flight from LAX to Newark Airport and left my Apple Watch on board(my scatter brainedness causes me to leave things all over this planet). That said, when I did a “Find My” for the device it somehow made it to a residential part of Newark New Jersey. To the person that has it(I don’t know if this is the actual address) … I’ll give you three guesses on the passcode and then if you’re slightly close, it’s yours. I mean, it’s clearly yours now but it’s a fun game. Enjoy!
Plot twist: It was Chevy Chase’s house! Just kidding, and yes, I stole that joke from one of the Insta comments because it made me laugh. Credit where it’s due.
Anyway, I cannot believe that Joel just straight up doxxed whoever this person is! That is wild. It’s also dangerous for whoever lives there and anyone who may try to show up there. I know that the odds are that it was just some rando that saw an expensive watch, picked it up and took it with them for personal gain, but how does he know that it wasn’t that it wasn’t a flight attendant or Good Samaritan that was planning on trying to get it back to him? I would have reported it to the non-emergency number or if I had Joel’s resources, looked into who lives there and then hired someone to safely retrieve it. Or, really, if I had his resources, I would just buy a new one and learn my lesson to not take my damn watch off on an airplane. Also, and this is absolutely me being a snotty native New Yorker, but why fly into Newark? Were there no flights into JFK? I do hope we get an update, though. I’m kinda invested now.
Photos credit: Nicky Nelson / Wenn / Avalon
Perhaps a dumb question, but isn’t the watch stolen and if McHale can prove where it is snd knows the password, can’t the police get it back??
Something similar happened with an ipad a couple years ago and the police did nothing.
Same thing happened with my friend’s lost iPhone. She knew where it was at all times, but the police would not help her get it back. She had to meet the guy in a parking lot and pay a ransom.
If your dog finds someone’s wallet and you call the police, they will show up. Interesting questions I got, like they were concerned someone was robbed or was hurt, because why would a wallet, be just laying around, I guess?
Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt that Helene messed with flights up and down the east coast this past weekend. Perhaps it was a last minute re-route and he had no other choice. Seriously though, if your destination is near the Holland Tunnel, Newark can be more efficient and sometimes cheaper than JFK.
Grew up in NY and NJ too. Newark is often way easier getting into the city than JFK or LaGuardia. IIRC more options too, and JetBlue is usually my preference for long haul cross country flights.
Depending on exactly where you live, EWR can be substantially easier than JFK (and that’s before you factor in the nightmare that is dealing with Immigrations at JFK). We live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and our first choice is LaGuardia (especially since the renovations). For non-Canadian international flights, it’s almost always easier to go through Newark. Getting over the GWB is a lot easier for us than any of the East Side bridges and I’d rather deal with the Jersey Turnpike than the Van Wyck. Mass transit options from Newark are much better than from JFK, too.
Totally agree. We always fly into Newark. Usually cheaper, and faster and MUCH easier to get into the city and get where we’re going.
I flew into JFK for the first time last year and that experience was so terrible that I never want to do it again. No, thank you.
Even when I lived in Manhattan, EWR was always my first choice. Getting to LGA or JFK via mass transit is painful and time consuming. And if you are wedded to United’s Mileageplus frequent flyer program, EWR IS the only choice to keep that status!
On my first ever trip to NYC last year, I flew into JFK and took a ~$100 cab to my hotel near Times Square. Flying out I used Newark — walked over to port authority bus terminal, then took ~ 4-block mini-detour to stand in front of a Burger King. Got on an $11.85 bus (senior rate) direct to my EWR terminal. Overall it was an expensive vacation, and I don’t begrudge any of the wonderful people, including cabbies, in greater NYC area (including Jersey) who helped make it a great trip. Many factors go into choice of transport; do what works best for you and yours 😀
Seems like his watch wasnt stolen. He lost it, someone picked it up and didnt take it to the lost & found dept. It sucks but, it’s his fault. Get over it and get a new watch.
That’s not how the law works. In order for original owner to relinquish ownership and allow the “finder” to assume ownership, the original owner has to actually intend to abandon the property, in this case the watch. Joel clearly just lost it and had no intention to abandon it on that airplane. Don’t make excuses for thieves.
@mina_esq with you! @douches that’s such a weird argument so if I drop my wallet on the ground and someone takes it home and spends my money and sells my cards instead of trying to get it back to me…?
@Noo Funny you bring up a lost wallet. I found one last winter and went to bring it back to the owner because we found the address on one of the ID cards. But not everybody is going to bring back the stuff people lose all the time, that’s unfortunately just real life. It’s sad that he lost his watch, nobody will be able to use it anyway which is a good thing. But laws about how it’s still yours even if you lose it, it all means nothing if it’s lost anyway. The police isnt gonna go fetch your watch back just becuase it has value to you. Should I call the police because I tagged my sweater and I’m able to tell them the address where it’s at? Should the police go for that, or should I get over it? I hope he gets his watch back, but I’m not betting on it – if that “thief” had any intention of bringing it back, it would be at the lost and found at the airport. And yes, it is still HIS watch, but sadly just not on HIS wrist…
I’m ok with doxing thieves. A good Samaritan wouldn’t have left the airport with it
THIS. A good Samaritan would have handed it to a flight attendant or other airport staff or to Lost and Found in the airport at the very least. Now if this was done and the recipient decided to keep it, then he’ll still have done the right thing in doxing the thief, in my opinion. And it’s a good bet that anyone who lives that close to the airport works there.
My issue is there’s no way for Joel to know if that’s really the theft address.
Find My isn’t always 100% accurate. Also, if the thief was on a plane, he/she may be visiting someone who had nothing to do with any of this, and now that persons address has been posted.
“If I had his resources”
The man flew JetBlue, let him be 🤣
No winners here. Obviously whoever found the watch should have turned it into lost and found, instead chose to be a thief, but a celebrity with a large platform doxxing someone isn’t cool.
Yeah, if they were trying to return it, it wouldn’t have left the airport. That’s what airport security is for. I found someone’s debit card and ID laying in a shopping parking lot. Picked it up and took it straight to a store manager.
He could have posted that it was in a Newark NJ house, X miles from the airport, and said the police are coming to get my watch. And maybe they would be since he’s a celebrity. If it’s a person who normally doesn’t steal, that would scare them enough to not do it again.
But doxxing is too far. Who lives there? A 10 yr kid? An 85 yr old grandma? He set them up for harassment and swatting.
Doxxing is way too far, particularly since Apple’s Find My locator isn’t 100% accurate on addresses. For my own apartment, the address given is a school around the corner. For my kid’s building, the residential street address is on a side street, but the Apple locator gives the address of a storefront in the same building, on the main street. For my sister’s house in the Atlanta burbs, the locator gives the address of the house behind hers. For all he knows, he just doxxed the next-door neighbors who have nothing to do with this and they are dealing with the fallout.
This is particularly an issue when houses are really close together, like they are in that neighborhood in Newark.
1. Police will not help you retrieve (know from experience) 2. My neighbour’s daughter was stabbed when she and her bf went to a house to retrieve her iPhone, so NEVER try to retrieve things yourself 3. Airport has a lost and found, and a “Good Samaritan” would have dropped it off with airline and not taken it to their home 4. People who steal other people’s sh*t are awful and I have no sympathy for their tears when they get doxxed. I also feel violated and at risk when thieves steal my electronics that have all sorts of personal things on them.
Shouldn’t he be able to mark it as stolen in Find My- making it basically making it useless?
You can do that with the newer IPhones, so it is likely that way with the watches and that would let him make it a brick with a wristband. But I don’t own one.
I don’t know why people bother stealing a locked Apple product, you literally cannot do anything to them if they are not yours, because of the security features on them. You cannot reset it, you cannot unlock them. They are just a lump because they need all the passcodes from the owner.
Yup, welcome to your brick, thief.
So you complain about Hale doxxing someone, and then you REPOST the photo/location yourself?
No native New Yorker would prefer JFK. Newark is a dream, comparatively, and there is an air train into Penn Station — I call BS on anyone who claims to be from NY who does not know this.
Pretty sure McHale has outed himself with ADHD in media, so maybe don’t torch him for forgetting to put his watch back on. It is absolute on brand. He even comments as much.
Nobody stole his watch, he left it and it was found by someone else. We know nothing about the situation so it’s a little presumptuous to assume whoever has it has ill intent. I once found a whole ass iPad left at the park. I took it home and waited damn near three days for someone from the city to call me back and tell me how to get it to the right person in their administrative office in case someone reported it missing. God forbid someone would have posted my address and accused me of stealing.
There’s a difference between stealing and finding. For all we know who ever found the watch could have been in a hurry, lost and found could be closed, it could have been found by some random who then gave it to a random airport employee – who shoved in their pocket and forgot about it.
Besides everyone knows that this stuff is basically worthless once it’s connected to an iCloud account.
Idk, when my brother-in-law AirPods were missing he checked the location and they were in someone’s house in Connecticut. My family lives in Hawaii so obviously someone got them who was on vacation. He looked up the address and called their parents (it was the 20 something year old kids who had been on vacation) and they mailed them back.