Police Track Down Kidnapped Woman Using Her Apple Watch

Police in Texas, USA have successfully tracked down and rescued a kidnapped woman using the GPS of her Apple watch.

The suspected kidnapper is presently facing charges after he terrorized her as he drove with her in the bed of a truck following the kidnap.

According to News 4 San Antonio the police were alerted to a potential kidnapping received from a girl who said her mother was arguing with a man, Adalberto Longoria, when she heard her scream.

The girl told the police that she heard the screaming from the parking lot, but did not know where she was taken.

Around 10 to 15 minutes later, the woman called the girl through her mobile watch, telling her Longoria had kidnapped her and wanted to hurt her. As she was speaking to her mom, the mobile watch was suddenly disconnected.

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Using an emergency cellular ping, police eventually tracked the woman and Longoria down to a Hyatt hotel parking lot at East Sonterra Blvd where they found the woman in a car. 

It seems that both the woman and Longoria were arguing and Longoria had asked the woman to get her things out of his truck, but later drove away while she was still in the truck bed. The victim told police he was allegedly drunk at the time.

The victim said she yelled at him to stop as he sped down Retama Parkway, approaching the intersection of I-35. As she begged him to stop, Longoria reportedly slammed on the brakes multiple times, causing her to slam down on the truck bed. She told police he laughed every time he did this.

Once he drove past Bulverde Road, the woman said Longoria pulled over and finally let her out, though she was disoriented and did not know exactly where she was.

According to police, Longoria continued to drive around and then parked in the parking lot of the hotel. The woman told Longoria she had called police, and he reportedly tossed money at her saying, "Here, put it on my books."

Longoria then saw officers approaching, so he ran from the parking lot and hopped a fence to escape.

Adalberto Longoria was picked up and now faces charges of aggravated kidnapping.

There have been reports in the past of mobile devices being used to track people down in search and rescue efforts, so while there is no doubt some concerns regarding our privacy with devices that have GPS installed, there are also some obvious benefits.

A lot of our mobile devices come with GPS these days. This isn’t so much that companies want to know where you are, but rather it is used for health and fitness-related apps, navigation apps, and so on. The inclusion of GPS can also be a good thing, like in the case of this woman.