A Californian woman fed up with packages getting stolen from her post office box sent an Apple AirTag to herself in a cunning plan to track down the suspected thief. It worked.

The woman had previously had several items stolen from her mailbox at the Los Alamos Post Office when she came up with the idea, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office aid.

Apple’s AirTags have become popular items since their 2021 release, helping users keep tabs on the location of anything from their lost keys to wallets and luggage.

Sheriff’s deputies were called to the post office where the woman told officials her mail had been stolen again — including the package with the AirTag.

Law enforcement tracked the AirTag to a block in Santa Maria, about 26 kilometres from the post office and arrested two suspects — a 27-year-old woman from Santa Maria and a 37-year-old man from Riverside.

They located the package with the AirTag among the victim’s mail, as well as items believed to have been stolen from more than a dozen other people. department said.

The two suspects were booked in jail on charges of possession of cheques with intent to commit fraud, conspiracy, and identity and credit card theft. The 37-year-old was also booked on a burglary charge and several other theft warrants from Riverside County.

The sheriff’s department commended the mail theft victim for contacting law enforcement so they could apprehend the suspects rather than attempting to contact them on her own.