Ex-CIA and FBI agent always attaches AirTags to kids - and says you should too
A former CIA and FBI agent has shared her top safety tips to follow while travelling which include sleeping on the third floor of a hotel and attaching Apple AirTags to children.
Tracy Walder, who worked for the CIA and as a special agent for the FBI between 2000 and 2005 had to learn to take extra precautions when sent to foreign lands on special assignments.
The 44-year-old took it upon herself to come up with a set of innovative safety tricks after she found herself in a dangerous situation abroad.
"Obviously I can't be extremely specific as it's still classified but generally speaking, I am coming at it from the idea that I am in another country spying on them,” Tracy explained. “I have to assume the other country maybe knows who I am and is maybe trying to do harm to me.”
She advises that precautionary preparation should start before even setting foot in a foreign country. Tracy herself routinely researches the area for any threats and takes care to set up an app which sends her location to contacts in the event of an emergency.
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Tracy has now shared her top tips for safety including using a door stop, sharing your itinerary and downloading a panic button app (Courtesy of Tracy Walder / SWNS)
Tracy has shared her top tips (Courtesy of Tracy Walder / SWNS)Tracy also not only attaches Apple AirTag trackers to her luggage but also to her eight-year-old daughter, who wears the device like a bracelet when travelling abroad.
The mum-of-one also refuses to stay in private rented accommodation and points out you can’t ever really trust reviews you read online.
"I will not stay in those sorts of places - I find them extremely dangerous and risky,” she said. "You are really putting your trust in someone that you don't know to stay in their home. You also really don't know who is writing those reviews."
Instead, Tracy, now a professor of criminal justice, opts to stay in hotels- but still takes extra caution. Always choosing to stay in a room located between the third and sixth floors, she’s more bothered about her exit strategy than scenic views.
“Typically, someone who's trying to do harm is going to go the easiest way that they can and that would be entering through the first floor as it is most accessible,” she explains. "With getting out, if you're too high on the 20th floor or 21st floor - it's going to be really difficult for you to get out quickly.”
On a recent trip to Florida, Tracy, from Dallas, Texas, had to demand the hotel change her allocated room from the first floor, which they did. However she knows she can’t always depend on staff to be so accommodating, "They refused to move me from the first floor when I was on a job once and so I started putting towels under the door.”
Typically Tracy will bolt the door of hotel rooms shut before putting down a door stop, which she always carries with her, to give herself an extra level of security.
Tracy also not only attaches Apple AirTag trackers to her luggage but also to her eight-year-old daughter (Getty Images)Sharing her tricks of the trade, the former agent hopes she can show people how easily they can ensure their own safety abroad.
She says, "My hope was to give people all different variations of security control and encourage them to use things they can control or already have - without having to buy anything."
Tracy realises not everyone is as cautionary as herself though, and says she was surprised by how nonchalant one of her friends was about their own personal safety when travelling alone.
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Her 44-year-old husband is also rather sceptical about his wife’s unconventional use of a doorstop. “My husband, Ben, teases me about it,” says Tracy. “But while it’s unlikely someone will break in, the reality is that hotel staff have a keycard to get into your room.”
As well as ensuring the security of her hotel room, Tracy shares her itinerary with her family as well as using a free 'Panic Button' app which alerts her emergency contacts to her location if pressed.
"The tips that I was sharing weren't necessarily things that I was able to take advantage of while working as an agent all the time but I always do them now.”
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