Technology can do a lot of amazing things. Apple’s AirTags, for example, allow to you basically Lojack any of your belongings and find them with the help of your phone.

An armed citizen in Texas used this technology to track down his stolen car. Maybe not the best move in the world, to be clear, but he did and he probably figured he had a right to find his stolen property.

That’s when things started to go sideways. That wasn’t great for the thief.

The owner of a stolen truck tracked down the thief and killed him after the thief allegedly pulled a gun, police say.

“I know that it’s frustrating, but please do not take matters into your own hands,” San Antonio Police Public Information Officer Nick Soliz said in a press conference, as reported by KSAT.

“It’s never safe, as you can see by this incident,” Soliz also said.

The Bexar County Medical Examiner identified 44-year-old Andrew John Herrera and ruled his death a homicide. The ME’s office says Herrera died from a gunshot wound to the head, the outlet also reported.

…

Police say the precise details of the confrontation are unclear, but that the suspect may have pulled a firearm before he was shot by the man who confronted him. Soliz says police believe the only person who fired shots was the person who tracked down the stolen truck.

Now, understand that I won’t advocate for people using AirTags to track down a stolen vehicle. It’s not that I think people shouldn’t be able to recover their stolen property so much as I don’t see a situation where doing so couldn’t potentially end violently.

While we have a right to keep and bear arms and use them to defend ourselves, it’s usually for the best not to go into a situation where we know violence is at least a strong possibility.

That said, the armed citizen didn’t seem to be breaking the law while the now-deceased thief was.

Currently, the authorities are determining whether to file charges against the armed citizen and while I’m not a lawyer, I can see why they’d consider that. If you instigate the confrontation, and then it turns into a shooting, you can often be charged for that shooting.

That doesn’t mean they should file charges, though. The bad guy still pulled a gun, and if the purpose of the instigation was really just to get his truck back, it really shouldn’t be a thing.

Plus, this is Texas. They’re not known for charging armed citizens for defending themselves.

I will note, however, that a lot of media outlets seem to be leaving out the fact that the thief pulled a gun in the first place, making it sound like the armed citizen just went out to dish a little frontier justice. That’s troubling, to say the least.

I suspect there will be more stories to follow and we may learn more in the days and weeks to come. We’ll try and keep an eye on this story going forward.