When she checked with her friends, she realized that it didn't belong to anyone she knew.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published on June 9, 2021. It has since been updated.
Sheridan Ellis, an artist from Texas, went out for dinner one night with a few of her friends to celebrate her friend's birthday. On the way back home, she was checking through her purse for something when she found a strange device in her bag. The woman realized the device was a tile tracker, ones that use bluetooth to track the location on something you attach it to, like your keys or your phone.
In this case, the device was being used to track the woman's live location. According to Mirror, the woman immediately took the batteries out of the device and threw them away. Eliis immediately knew she had to share this with others, and took to TikTok to document her freaky experience. "Hey, quick storytime/PSA for what it's worth category," she says in the video, which has since gone viral.
"This weekend on Saturday I went to dinner with a group of friends for this girl's birthday, if you know me I don't normally carry a purse, but on Saturday I did because we had decorations and stuff for the table. At the end of the night, I'm cleaning my purse out and I find this—if you don't know what this is, it's a tile. It's basically a tracker, people put it on their keys and whatnot. It's not mine, I don't know how it got in my purse."
"I immediately took the battery out, don't worry but yeah... check your purses and stay safe out there."
Thousands of people commented on the video, sharing their concern. "That's an expensive way to stalk someone," said one person. Another concerned parent added: "OMG! I have pre/teen girls. Thanks for putting this out there. But seriously, how many more things do we have to be aware of?!"
"This is so scary!! Please go to the police. There might be someone out there that didn't clean out their purse and find it..." a third added. Someone else suggested that the tracker could have possibly belonged to someone else at the dinner party, but Ellis explained that she had already checked with all of them.
Some people commented that the tracker couldn't possibly have been working, especially if the phone it was paired with wasn't within the normal range. However, one user shared, "Ignore the people saying don't worry. Even if it didn't work, the fact that someone tried it very scary. I'd see if there are cameras."
Well, she did good by sharing the story as it does bring awareness to the possible risk of being stalked or traced by a tile tracker.
References:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/woman-urges-people-check-bags-24250664
https://www.tiktok.com/@sheridanellis/video/6968868536114482438?is_from_webapp=v1&is_copy_url=1
Representative Cover Image Source: Getty Images/bojanstory
