ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – An interstate traveler was reunited with his U-Haul that was stolen days ago in Albuquerque.

KOB 4 spoke to him Monday and police told him he was pretty lucky to get the U-Haul back.

Ryan Jonik was on his way to South Carolina Saturday when he stopped for the night in Albuquerque. Overnight, his SUV and the U-Haul holding everything he owned was stolen. 

Jonik says he had a lot of music equipment in the U-Haul. He frequently mails it to friends for work. To keep track of the packages, he attaches Apple AirTags to some of the microphones he ships. 

Those AirTags along with the LoJack — a GPS device in his wife’s SUV — helped police track down the stolen U-Haul just a day after it was stolen.

Jonick says Apple AirTags only work when they’re next to an Apple device or Wi-Fi. So it took a few hours, but eventually the AirTags pinged, and he was able to track them. 

He gave police the info and then waited for police to call him, even though he had the address where the U-Haul and his car were.

“People will understand, I’m from Detroit and, like, I understand that there are just some places you don’t want to go, and you just, kind of, you just hold off for a second. That’s more of like a thing that you figure out by living in an area that you do. So, yeah, it was fine. I knew that I would go over there at some point, but it was kind of agonizing. Just say, like, ‘Yo is our truck here is our car here,’” said Jonik. 

The U-Haul truck was found along with what police told Jonik was another stolen U-Haul in the backyard of a South Valley home. 

Jonik says the truck was ransacked, boxes torn open and several items broken or missing. 

On Monday, KOB 4 talked to Albuquerque police about how helpful GPS tracking devices like AirTags can be for officers, and about Jonik’s decision to stay put.

“Unfortunately, there’s been incidents in the past where people have gone after their own property, and we’ve had some tragic incidents happen from that. So I would definitely tell people not to try to find the property themselves, to call law enforcement. Then, if they provide us with those coordinates, we’ll dispatch officers out there and locate it for them, and that’s the safest route to go,” said APD Commander Jeff Bernard. “Those things are really helpful for us, because we’re able to recover the property a lot faster, and that oftentimes take us to the offender. Sometimes, if you’re not able to recover in a quick fashion, then they ditch the property somewhere, and then you may not get the person in custody.”

Jonik says he still doesn’t know exactly what was stolen because the U-Haul was so ransacked, and at this point he just wants to get to South Carolina. 

He asks that the public be on the lookout for any Nine Inch Nails memorabilia, specifically a poster that was signed by the entire band. That’s one thing he says is priceless, and was definitely missing.