He hid an AirTag in a stone. It caught the thief.

A councillor in Rufford, Lancashire caught the thief who had been stripping historic capstones from a 300-year-old village wall by hiding an Apple AirTag inside one of the loose stones and waiting for it to vanish. Around 30 stones disappeared over several months from an 18th-century wall along a half-mile stretch of road. Police said they could not help, citing no CCTV and no forensic opportunities. Councillor Matt Smith, 43, tried signs reading "Smile, you're on camera" first. The thief was unmoved. After a third raid in October, Smith, a landscaping contractor, planted the tracker and went to bed. Within weeks his phone pinged overnight that the stone was on the move. Police traced it to a Manchester man's backyard, where they found coping stones worth roughly 7,000 pounds, plus dozens more taken from across the country. The man, 41, was arrested and sentenced. "I'm glad we stood up, and didn't just tolerate it," Smith said.