While checked into a Dubai hotel, British travel vlogger Miles Routledge (who goes by “Lord Miles”) noticed his AirPods were gone. He immediately put them into Lost Mode, enabling remote location pings and an alert tone each time the buds came online.
Almost twelve months of silence ended when the app showed his AirPods alive and moving in Jhelum, Punjab, Pakistan—on Defence Road, a few metres from the restaurant “2nd Wife.” Routledge posted the screenshot on Twitter, vowing to fly to Pakistan “next week,” recruit local police, and film the recovery “on principle.”
Earlier in the month prior to boarding a flight from London, he emailed the coordinates and device serial number to Pakistani police. Officers gave him much better responsiveness than Austin, Texas residents have received when the police here quiet quit over a contract dispute involving police accountability measures voted on my residents.
Police canvassed the Punjab neighbourhood, played the Apple tone in short bursts, and traced the sound to a small electronics shop, and then to a home nearby. A local man produced the earbuds and a receipt. He’d purchased them used and claimed not to know they were stolen.
Routledge landed at Islamabad, drove an hour south to Jhelum police headquarters, signed the property return form, and posed for photos with the depoartment holding the AirPods box. Police then took him to lunch at the same “2nd Wife” restaurant that had appeared on the Apple map.
BREAKING NEWS
An announcement from the Pakistan Jhelum Police Chief, the Inspector General and Lord Miles regarding the STOLEN AirPods.
I have MY AirPods back after 1 year!
TLDR; it was unknowingly sold to a Pakistani man by an Indian national who’s now been arrested… pic.twitter.com/WR7fP9OYhp
— Lord Miles Official (@real_lord_miles) June 27, 2025
The airfare, of course, would have purchased many pairs of Airpods. And presumably he’d replaced the lost ones in the intervening year. But he’s a content creator, and.. content! He says that the satisfaction of beating a thief “paid for the trip.” It’s likely that viewer engagement did. Nonetheless, it makes for a great Apple commercial – while fomenting further decline in India-Pakistan relations.
I shit talk India on Pakistani TV pic.twitter.com/za3q6F2UZ4
— Lord Miles Official (@real_lord_miles) June 29, 2025
Because AirPods piggyback on any nearby Apple device for location updates, they can surface anywhere in the world once paired to a new iPhone. The vlogger kept triggering the chirp not just as a locator beacon but also harassment tool against the presumed thieves.
However the person in possession of the Airpods was not charged, because Pakistani law lets police return property when the possessor demonstrates they purchased the item without knowledge that it was stolen.
Hope he had a nice trip. Obviously the thief pocketed the money for stealing and selling them. And for that matter could well be in the UAE, not Pakistan, and still pilfering anything left loose. At least the police got some good publicity.
How did the owner lose them in the first place? Did he accidentally leave them on the airplane? Did they accidentally get mixed in with the trash? I doubt that they were ripped from his head as he played music through them. Maybe they fell out of a pocket while he was walking.
“Want somethin’ done right… gotta dooooit urselv!” — Kenny Rogers Jackass, MadTV.
@drrichard — When life hands to lemons… agreed. Why not ‘smell the roses,’ see a few sights along the way. I’d like to see Lahore, maybe visit the ‘gate’ at Wagah (high-step!) Of course, get some biryani. Hunza Valley, really anything Himalayas. Ah, someday!
Am I the only one whose BS detector starts to flash red when a restaurant called “2nd Wife” is mentioned twice in a story in which the restaurant is utterly irrelevant?
Can someone explain why those presumably kept working for the buyer after putting them Lost Mode?
Lucky for the buyer asking for and keeping the receipt: if I buy from a seller from Craigslist, I wouldn’t ask to produce a receipt, although I’d try to get the original receipt.
Or is that receipt from the Indian seller legit?
“Content creator” being one of those occupations that simply wouldn’t exist in a serious society.
Remember: “Social Media” was a mistake. The Internet was probably a mistake as well.
Content creator or not, I agree with @1990 on this. Either way, tracking them down and getting them back made a good hobby, provided a great adventure, and was a once in a lifetime kind of thing.
Props to him for having the ability to follow through and doing so.
Wow that was quite the diatribe against India…
@jns — Presumably they were stolen in a hotel room.
@NedsKid @1990 — Yep! Agreed. Sometimes it’s “the journey, not the destination”.
Need to combine LAX Tom and L737. Combining the BS detector plus the diatribe against India may have some validity, especially as the setting and marvelous police support occurs in Pakistan.
This could be coincidental, or not. In today’s world one never knows.
@ 1990. Hunza is great and I think is still great. Swat is gorgeous but maybe a bit dicey these days. When you get into these mountains, people are not that interested in being part of any lawland central government.
@Jack the Ladd — It’s on my list!
For Pakistan, was a bit concerned by the tandem issues of internal political unrest following Khan’s exit, and also, the increasing tensions with India.
Would like to see more of the Himalayas, specifically. Bhutan treated us well. Was not close to the mountains in India, but have heard good things about Shimla. Have not been to Tibet, or Nepal. Was in Myanmar, but not the mountains (these days, I wouldn’t recommend there due to the junta and the earthquake.)
Haven’t made it to any of the Stans yet either. Uzbekistan flies nonstop from JFK, so that was an idea at one point.
Would be swell if the geopolitics could calm down a bit. I feel for the people affected firsthand by such disruptions.