Blocking the Serial Number of my AirPods that was stolen

Apple does not get involved in law enforcement or privacy matters. How would they know that you had not sold the Airpods to somebody else and now you were trying to hold them ransom? See what I mean?

Also to do this they would have to routinely scan everybody's hardware for connected devices and transmit that information back to Apple for verification against a database. I could see a few hundred million users screaming "privacy violation!"

If somebody steals your Airpods and you want them disabled then Apple would have to scan every device in existence to see if they were connected there in order to disable them. Airpods do not connect directly to the Internet, they connect to hardware and all hardware would have to be scanned, or the Airpods themselves would have to have a way of talking through any hardware to Apple to inquire, "Hey, here I am, am I okay to work here?" And what if the Airpods refused to work until they could connect? I am frequently in locations for long periods where I have no connection to the Internet. I would not want to have a set of Airpods that refused to work because they could not make a daily call-home (home = Apple) to check in.

Then what if somebody gives a spouse a set of Airpods, and that spouse later has to hide from the the first one because of abuse, and the first person uses Find My to track the second person or to disable their hardware?

Then, frankly, does a company want to take on responsibility for performing police actions and having to adjudicate all the details of every ownership dispute? Apple has basically drawn the lines where it is willing to be involved which is mostly providing self-help services for dealing with unintentionally misplaced devices.

There is no OS in the AirPods that would allow for blocking, and pairing them to your device does not send anything to Apple's servers so how would they know where they have been connected? And serial numbers are for inventory control and identification.

The serial number has other purposes such as product identification for warranty service and replacement orders.

If your AirPods are lost -->

https://support.apple.com/HT207581

"If you still can't find your AirPod or Charging Case, or if something is damaged, get the serial number [ https://support.apple.com/ht209371 ] and then contact Apple Support [https://getsupport.apple.com/?caller=kbase&PGF=PGF32003&category_id=SC0298] for a replacement. Then learn how to set up your replacement."

You asked what serial numbers are for, they long predate computers and electronics.

How does Apple not support their customers and what did you expect from the rep?

Let me list for you the models of headphones that can be blocked from use by the manufacturer:

1.