After 30 historic wall stones were stolen, UK councillor hid an AirTag in one; police tracked the thief

An English mayor was fed up with watching 300-year-old coping stones vanish from an 18th-century ancient wall one by one. With no cameras around, pointing fingers or catching the thief seemed like an impossible task.

Matt Smith said people living near Rufford Old Hall in Lancashire "were getting a bit miffed" with stones being taken from the historic boundary wall, spread along a half-mile stretch of road which connects Holmeswood and Rufford in October 2025.Locals noticed the wall was first attacked and stones were taken in May, with two further raids taking place in June and October. "We looked at installing some CCTV, but it costs and with the wall being attacked at random places at random times, in a half-mile stretch of wall, it was going to be hard to cover that area," the parish councillor said.

He said the parish council "put some lovely 'smile, you're on camera' signs up and unfortunately that didn't deter them".Thus, to investigate and possibly find a conclusion, he put an Apple AirTag, a coin-sized tracking device, inside one of the stones.