Calif. dad confronts thief at home after tracking stolen e-bike

A California dad fearlessly turned the tables on a thief who swiped his daughter’s expensive electric bike — after he tracked the stolen bike fitted with an Apple AirTag and turned up on the mugger’s doorstep.

Johnny Ehrman’s $3,000 e-bike, which she uses daily to get to and from school and work, was nicked last month while she was at work, leaving her in tears.

“I drive like 12 miles a day,” Ehrman told Fox 11 Los Angeles. “I was sobbing outside my workplace. I actually had some of my coworkers be like, ‘What’s happening? Where is your bike?’”

Ehrman said the bike’s wheel and pedals had been locked and she removed the battery, but the bike wasn’t locked onto a fixed object.

Fortunately, she had previously bought an Apple Airtag tracking device — which sell for about $30 —  and placed it on her bike in case something like this ever happened.

She saw on the tracking app that her beloved bike was still on the move and immediately called the police.

Ehrman and her father, David, then continued tracking the bike until it stopped at an apartment complex not far from their home in Orange County.

The father stormed over to the home and confronted the thief after finding the bike in the front yard.

“I yelled at him, ‘I’m grabbing my daughter’s bike!’” the dad said, before he snatched the e-bike and “hightailed it out of there.”

The crook, he said, was stunned.

“The dude just stood there with the look on his face like I’ve never seen anyone with that look,” the dad said.

“I think the look was shock. Like ‘How did you get my location?’”

David told Fox 11 he thinks the Orange County Sheriff’s Office didn’t do enough once after he showed them the location of the bike and asked for their help.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office has not released the name of the person who stole the bike.

The agency reminded residents to always let law enforcement take the charge when a crime has been committed.

“As much as the convenience of technology plays a vital role in the quality of our lives, we want to remind our communities to utilize their local law enforcement services when they’ve been victimized by a crime instead of placing themselves into harm’s way,” the spokesperson said.