A TikTok creator says her mother’s wheelchair kept beeping at a retirement home. At the same time, her phone started warning her about an unknown AirTag nearby.
The creator posts under the handle @fortheloveofautism22. In her caption, she said she heard the sound while her phone repeatedly warned her about an unknown AirTag. “I kept hearing her wheelchair beep, and my phone kept saying unknown AirTag near you on my phone. This is wild,” she wrote on TikTok.
The video then shows them pulling out an AirTag that appears to be lodged in the wheelchair seat. The woman sounds surprised when she sees it, asking, “What’s this?” while someone else adds, “What the hell?” The creator titled the video, “Discharged my mom out of her care center so fast.”
Who put the AirTag on the wheelchair?
She did not name the facility in her caption, only referring to it as a retirement home. It is not clear from her post who put the tracker there or why. Other people have made similar discoveries after receiving AirTag alerts. In one earlier case, a woman who found an AirTag in her car later learned her own parents had planted it.
@fortheloveofautism22 I kept hearing her wheelchair beep and my phone kept saying unknown AirTag near you on my phone. This is wild #airtag #viral #wth #crazy #retirementhome
♬ biting bullets – ridgeclub
The clip has pulled in thousands of replies, with commenters divided over the AirTag. Some commenters see a safety measure. Others see a privacy problem.
One top comment offered a possible explanation. “If the wheelchair belongs to the facility then I don’t see a problem tracking their wheelchairs they are expensive!” the commenter wrote. The creator answered that comment herself. “My mom bought the wheelchair,” she replied. If accurate, that would rule out the idea that the facility owned the chair.
Other commenters were more concerned about whether the family had been told. “Yall are missing the point. The family should’ve been INFORMED,” one reply read. The commenter said that even if the AirTag was there for safety, the family should have been told before anyone put one on her “PERSONAL belongings.”
Several other users said wheelchairs can get lost or swapped inside care facilities. One wrote that other residents sometimes take chairs by mistake. That same commenter called the situation “not the big bad wolf you think it is.” In that scenario, the AirTag could simply help staff find a missing chair. But trackers have also turned up in places where people weren’t expecting them. One shopper said she found a device sewn into a pair of overalls.
As of this writing, the video has gained more than 10.5 million views and 5,800 replies. The creator has not said whether she has since spoken with staff about the AirTag. She has also not identified the retirement home in her post.
