Theft of AirPods in Williamsburg leads to arrest of Ohio man arrested in Georgia

Mara Miller |, The Times-Tribune, Corbin, Ky.
·3 min read

Oct. 8—WILLIAMSBURG — A pair of Apple AirPods helped multiple law enforcement agencies solve a string of offenses across three states.

According to the Williamsburg Police Department, 51-year-old Ernest P. Shackleford of Ohio was arrested Monday in Dalton, Georgia, following a three-day investigation.

The local police department's involvement began in the early morning hours of October 1, when two vehicles were broken into at Balltown Apartments. Items taken from the vehicle owners totaled around to $5,300 — enough for a felony in Kentucky.

The thefts in Kentucky included golf clubs, a purse, a laptop computer, a tablet, and AirPods.

Williamsburg's interim Police Chief Jason Caddell said, "(It was) whatever he could grab."

Shacklefold's downfall, however, was stealing the Apple AirPods. Anyone who is an Apple product user is acquainted with "Find My", the cloud-based system Apple has developed in order to find lost items.

"We tracked the AirPods," said Caddell, adding that Shackleford had been located twice in Tennessee before his ultimate arrest in Georgia.

Caddell explained that Shackleford even stole a 2021 Chevrolet Malibu from Enterprise after changing out Tennessee tags, "He spray painted the car. He was changing out tags. In the picture we saw he didn't do a bad job with the spray paint."

WPD was able to assist the Dalton Police Department with GPS coordinates from tracking the AirPods.

Dalton Police Lieutenant Jason Thompson explained that Shackleford had rented a hotel room at an Econo Lodge in Dalton. After being in contact with the other law enforcement agencies from Tennessee and Kentucky, they put out his image with a warrant for Shackleford's arrest Sunday night.

The following morning, an employee from Walmart recognized Shackleford from the picture the Dalton Police Department issued. After the employee called, police arrived at the store. Shackleford took off on foot into the woods toward the interstate. Lt. Thompson shared that other police were en route, intercepting the suspect in the woods, where they arrested him.

Warrants from Tennessee had not officially gone out at press time, yet the Dalton Police Department chose to hold Shackleford as a Fugitive from Justice. He also incurred a charge for public intoxication.

Caddell opined that there is no telling how many victims may have lost property due to Shackleford's criminal mischief but noted the man has also not yet been charged with the thefts related to last Saturday when he passed through Kentucky.

The chief explained, "Here's the problem. He's got way more serious charges in Tennessee and Georgia than here. We could charge him with felony theft but all of the items have been recovered."

Caddell continued that he wasn't sure if the police department wanted to take that risk of Shackleford being transported back to Whitley County and re-released locally when he is currently detained in Georgia.

Shackleford is also believed to be involved in an additional theft that occurred in the Ryan's Creek area of Whitley County, according to WPD.