A Belarusian in Warsaw Tracked the Thief Who Stole His Headphones for Several Days. And Finally Got Them Back — In a Church
Using the sound playback function, he managed to pinpoint the right entrance and even the apartment in the building — the headphones responded to his signal.
An unusual story happened to a Belarusian named Uladzimir in Warsaw: for several days, he independently tracked a person who had taken possession of his wireless headphones, tried to negotiate, called the police — and finally got the item back in quite an unexpected place.
The man shared his story on social media.
According to him, the story is about Pixel Buds Pro 2 wireless headphones. When Uladzimir realized they were missing, he used Google's tracking function — and saw a specific location in Warsaw where the device was activated.
He sent a message to the headphones, asking the person to make contact and promising a reward, but received no reply. Then he began to observe the device's movement and eventually went to the house where the headphones were located.
On site, he spent several days trying to figure out which specific apartment his item was in. Using the sound playback function, he managed to pinpoint the right entrance and even the door — the headphones responded to his signal.
The man tried to negotiate with the person behind the door, offering money, but to no avail. Afterwards, he called the police, but they couldn't do anything — the door wasn't opened, and there were no grounds for coercive actions.
On the third day, the story took an unexpected turn. Through tracking, the Belarusian saw that his headphones had moved to the city center — specifically to St. Alexander's Church.
Uladzimir went there and, entering inside, turned on the signal again. The sound, amplified by the church's acoustics, came from behind the altar. As it turned out, someone had left the headphones near the donation box, after which a sexton took them behind the altar.
As a result, the item was returned to its owner.
The hero of the story himself believes it was "a mix of technology, persistence, and psychology." In his opinion, the person who took the headphones was most likely not a professional thief, but eventually felt guilty and decided to return the find — in a symbolic way.
He also advises always linking devices to accounts and using tracking functions — they played a key role in this story.