‘That’s My Wheelchair!’: Man Whose Wheelchair Was Stolen at Airport Is Saved by Apple AirTag
Navigating a busy airport in a wheelchair is a unique challenge most of us a lucky enough to not have to face in our lives. But imagine how much more difficult that challenge would be if someone stole your wheelchair, leaving you stranded. Well that is exactly what happened to one man on TikTok who was thankfully able to locate his stolen chair thanks to an Apple AirTag.
TikToker “Wheelchair Dave” vlogs his travels and adventures, often documenting the struggles of moving through the world while using a wheelchair. He also shares advice for other disabled folk watching his videos.
A recent video of his that has drawn widespread attention shows a bizarre misunderstanding at the airport. According to the text in the video, an elderly man had taken Dave’s wheelchair by mistake which almost caused him to miss his flight. “POV: Your wheelchair gets taken by someone at the gate,” it reads. In the video, Dave can be heard telling the man, “That’s my wheelchair,” to which the man responds, “How am I gonna get one?”
Dave tells the man he doesn’t know but reiterates, “That’s my personal chair,” at which point the older gentleman seems to acknowledge he may be in the wrong, although the video cuts before we see him give it back.
An Apple AirTag helped prove the chair was his
It seems the man may not have intentionally taken Dave’s wheelchair but had Dave not found it he claims he would have missed his flight. However, he had prepared for a scenario like this as he reveals he had an Apple AirTag attached to the wheelchair which helped him to trck down and locate his property.
“Wild sequences of events! My air tag saved me from missing my flight!” he wrote in the description.
In the comments viewers debated whether the old man had intentionally stolen it or if he knew he was in the wrong. “He gave that up way too easily, he had to have known it wasn’t his,” one commenter speculated. Another agreed, writing, “saying “well how am I gonna get one?” instead of instantly apologizing tells me he probably new he wasn’t supposed to take it.”
While a few argued that the man may have genuinely mistaken Dave’s wheelchair for a generic, free-use chair provided by the airport, others pointed out obvious differences between personal use chairs and the ones provided by airports or hospitals although “the average person doesn’t think about these things,” one commenter claimed.
Other commenters shared their own wheelchair theft experiences, showing that perhaps wheelchair theft, accidental or not is more common than we might think. In any case, Dave’s ingenious decision to attach an Airtag to his property helped him get it back in the end.
(Featured image: Wheelchair Dave, TikTok)
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