An Iowa man accused of stalking a woman with Apple AirTags by placing them in her car pleaded guilty last week.
Carl Steven Shawver, 63, was arrested and booked into jail Dec. 10, 2022, and was charged with three counts of stalking – unauthorized use of GPS; three counts of camera/electronic surveillance devices – trespass first offense; and one count of stalking, according to WHO13.
Prosecutors said the woman found an AirTag on top of her car's spare tire Dec. 5, after she was alerted by her cellphone that she was being tracked. The West Des Moines Police Department took the AirTag and placed it into evidence.
According to the report, Shawver showed up at the police station one day after the AirTag was dropped off while searching for the victim.
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He told officers that the woman he was tracking was his wife, who he said believed was having an affair with an individual at the police station, but court records show the two have never been in any type of relationship, according to an affidavit.
Two additional AirTags were discovered in the victim's car, with one being found by police and the other being found at a mechanic shop.
Shawver pleaded guilty to all changes April 12 in a plea agreement with prosecutors.
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The report states that the plea agreement states that Shawver would receive a suspended sentence of 11 years, translating to no jail time, but two years of probation.
The judge presiding over the case has yet to approve the sentence that prosecutors proposed in their plea deal.
Iowa law states that the maximum sentence for stalking – unauthorized use of GPS is one year, camera/electronic surveillance devices – trespass 1st offense, is two years, and the stalking charge is also two years.
A spokesperson for Apple has previously pointed Fox News Digital to a recent update and stated that it works with law enforcement to track down AirTags used for criminal purposes.
"AirTag was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or another person’s property, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use of our products. Unwanted tracking has long been a societal problem, and we took this concern seriously in the design of AirTag. It’s why the Find My network is built with privacy in mind, uses end-to-end encryption, and why we innovated with the first-ever proactive system to alert you of unwanted tracking. We hope this starts an industry trend for others to also provide these sorts of proactive warnings in their products," the spokesperson said.
