Dog Wearing AirTag Rescued From Storm Water Drain by Firefighters: Report

Apple’s AirTag tracking device is a handy tool for keeping track of your personal belongings, but the tracker is also used by people to locate their pets by attaching it to a collar, even though it was not designed for that purpose. Rescuers in California have now saved a dog after he ran away from his owner and entered a storm water drain before being swept away. The dog was wearing an AirTag and a conventional ID tag, according to first responders.

While on a walk, one-year-old Australian Shepherd Seamus ran away from his owner Emilie Brill and ran toward a drainage area. “He got away from me, and he just went down into this drainage. The water was going so fast I think all it took was one paw in that water and he was gone,” Brill told ABC7. Thankfully, first responders were quickly alerted to Seamus’ disappearance and rescue efforts were soon underway.

According to a video posted by the San Bernadino County Fire Department on January 18 detailing the effort to rescue the dog, Seamus entered a flood control basin and was swept away in fast moving waters. Firefighters were informed by an employee at a nearby recreational vehicle (RV) facility that they had seen a dog floating down the nearby channel and heard it barking.

The video reveals that Seamus had managed to escape the fast-flowing water and was in an access tube, when he was rescued by the firefighters, nearly a mile (roughly 1.6kms) away from where he entered the storm water drain.

The lucky dog was then reunited with Brill after the crew dried him and warmed him in the fire engine before they dropped him off at his house. 

“Seamus was equipped with both Apple AirTag & a conventional ID Tag which aided rescuers and owners in tracking the pup and reuniting them,” the fire department stated. It’s worth noting that Apple previously stated in an interview, that if people want to use an AirTag to monitor their pet’s location, they should “make sure that their moving pet gets into range of a device in the Find My network”.