S'pore man, 22, tracks lost AirPods case from Jurong to Toa Payoh for 3 hours

A man in Singapore realised his AirPods Pro case had gone missing and decided to track its live location from Jurong to Toa Payoh.

He successfully found the case after a three-hour journey.

He detailed his journey in a series of TikTok videos on Jun. 7, one of which has since hit over 339,000 views.

Lost AirPods Pro case

Speaking to Mothership, Ethan, 22, recounted that he lost the case on Jun. 5, either at Beauty World or at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

The National Serviceman had bought it with his NS allowance and had been using it for only a month.

A replacement would set him back S$139, he said, so he decided to try recovering it instead.

From Jurong to Toa Payoh

When he used Apple's Find My location-tracking app on Jun. 6 to look for the case, he was shocked to see that it was first located at Jurong Point.

The location history showed that the case had travelled from Jurong Point towards Toa Payoh.

He then used Google's Gemini AI assistant to help deduce that the route matched that of bus service 157, he said.

He managed to track it down to Toa Payoh Bus Interchange, where he spent more than 30 minutes searching the area.

Took bus back to Jurong

However, Ethan saw that the case's location was moving again.

Suspecting that the person carrying it was heading back towards Jurong on 157, he decided to take the MRT to "intercept the bus" as it would go past King Albert Park.

However, he couldn't reach in time and took a TADA ride to get one step ahead of the bus, according to the location given by the Find My app.

He managed to board the bus and then used the sound alert on the Find My app to locate the device.

It was eventually found near a passenger, but Ethan said that he wasn't fully sure if the passenger had taken it.

"I suspected he tossed it aside after hearing the pinging as I rang the AirPods multiple times," he said.

Rather than confronting the individual or filing a police report, Ethan said he ultimately decided to drop the matter as he managed to get his case back in the end.