A California man has filed a lawsuit claiming police violated his Fourth Amendment rights by accessing his storage unit without a warrant. Police arrested him in 2023 for possession of stolen goods tracked using an Apple AirTag.
Mullin argues the police used unauthorized tracking and relied on consent from someone at the storage facility who lacked authority.
The lawsuit accuses the Mountain View Police Department of unlawful search and seizure. City officials have not commented on the case yet.
Full Story
A man is suing a city in California and some of its police officers after they caught him in possession of stolen goods using an Apple AirTag stowed away with it.
Mountain View Police arrested Tyghe James Mullin in 2023 for theft of items from a storage facility there, according to the Mountain View Vista. The owner of the stolen goods gave police access to the location of an AirTag hidden in one of the stolen bags.
According to the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Northern California in March, police tracked the AirTag to a storage unit owned by Mullin and later arrested him.
Mullin was sentenced in April 2024, according to Santa Clara court records. While in prison, he filed a lawsuit claiming police injured him during the arrest.
The lawsuit
Mullin sued the Mountain View Police Department on March 20, 2025. He stated that the department violated his Fourth Amendment rights when they used the AirTag and accessed his storage unit without a warrant to do so. Mullin says police got help from someone at the storage facility where he was holding the stolen items.
“The police intruded upon Plaintiff’s private affairs by using unauthorized tracking and unwarranted search methods,” Mullin’s complaint states. “Plaintiff’s location was given, and investigators were provided consent to enter the facility by an individual who lacked the authority to do so.”
Is an AirTag enough?
The lawsuit cites Riley v. California to claim that the police unlawfully used a device to lead them to a crime. The 2014 U.S. Supreme Court opinion said police must first get a warrant signed by a judge before using digital items like cell phones in an investigation.
In another case, United States v. Jones, the justices ruled that attaching a GPS tracking device amounted to a Fourth Amendment violation.
City of Mountain View officials were not available Thursday night to comment on the suit.
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