Tracking a stolen device's AirTag
How can I track my AirTag if the device it was linked to was stolen
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 12 mini, iOS 17
When an Apple AirTag is outside the Bluetooth range (~30-40') of your iPhone, it relies on the Apple Find My network which consists of literally millions of other iPhones. When one of those gets in range, it will relay the tag's ID, along with the phone's GPS location, to the Apple servers over an Internet connection. This is where you would find the tag's "location" with the Find My app on your phone.
The problem is, is if the thief also has an iPhone. If they do, they will get a notification on their phone that an AirTag is "following them." They can then try to locate it and disable it. Doing so will render it useless.
The bottom line is that Apple did not design these tags for tracking ... regardless of why one would want to use them for that purpose.