A woman got tired of having her mail stolen. She sent herself an Apple AirTag to catch the thieves

(CNN) – A California woman whose mail was recently stolen used technology as bait to track down the thieves, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office says.

Los Alamos authorities arrested two suspects Monday with the help of an Apple AirTag tracking device that the woman mailed to herself, the Sheriff's Office said in a statement. press release.

Officers responded that morning to a report of a mail theft that had just occurred at the local post office. When they arrived, they learned the woman had recently had her mail stolen, so she decided to mail herself a package with the tracking device inside, according to the release.

On Monday, she became a victim of repeated mail theft, but this time she was able to track the thieves thanks to the AirTag, authorities said.

These work by sending out a Bluetooth signal that nearby devices on Apple’s Find My network can detect, according to Apple. The AirTag sends its location to a user’s iCloud, allowing them to see where it is on the Find My map.

“It is important to note that the victim did not attempt to contact the suspects on her own,” the Sheriff’s Office said in the statement.

The suspected thieves were located in nearby Santa Maria, California, with the victim's mail, including the package containing the AirTag, and other items that authorities believe were stolen from more than a dozen victims, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Virginia Franchessca Lara, 27, and Donald Ashton Terry, 37, were arrested in connection with the crime, authorities said.

Lara was charged with felonies including possession of checks with intent to defraud, fictitious checks, identity theft, credit card theft and conspiracy, and remains held on $50,000 bail as of Thursday, jail records show.

Terry faces felony charges including theft, possession of checks with intent to defraud, credit card theft, identity theft and conspiracy and was being held on $460,000 bail, according to jail records.

CNN has reached out to attorneys representing Lara and Terry for comment.

In the statement, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office also praised the AirTag owner “for her proactive solution” to track the thieves.

Authorities said they are working to contact other robbery victims in this case.