New Delhi: British YouTuber Miles Routledge’s hunt for his AirPods became a year-long international saga involving police, a cross-border trail of ownership, and an unexpected moment of publicity in Pakistan.
Twenty-four-year-old Routledge, better known as “Lord Miles” who addresses himself as “Britain’s future PM”, built an online following by travelling to some of the most unpredictable and politically tense places such as Afghanistan and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. And then he found himself tracking a far more personal mission: recovering a pair of wireless earbuds he lost nearly a year ago in a hotel room in Dubai.
What began as a routine case of forgetfulness soon turned into a social media spectacle. Using Apple’s Find My app, Routledge activated ‘Lost Mode’ to discover the device was not in Dubai at all, but hundreds of miles away in Pakistan, specifically, in the Punjab town of Jhelum, near a local eatery ironically named “2nd Wife Restaurant”.
My AirPod pros have been lost for a year in Pakistan and guess who’s going to go there next week and get his property back! pic.twitter.com/yXnP7ZJdkf
— Lord Miles Official (@real_lord_miles) May 29, 2025
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With no contacts on the ground and only a GPS ping to go on, Routledge turned to his followers on X, tagging the Jhelum police and sharing the device’s coordinates in the hope that someone would help. He even threatened to go to Pakistan, adding that he doesn’t like thieves.
“They got stolen from my hotel in Dubai and made their way to Pakistan. I enabled lost mode and keep playing the ‘find me’ noise when he’s using the AirPods. I’m going to get a police officer and storm the area, get back my AirPods and film it all. Don’t like thieves,” he wrote on X.
Local police took note after his tweet went viral, assigned a team to investigate, focusing on households with residents recently returned from Dubai. It wasn’t long before they found a local man who admitted to being in possession of the AirPods, though he insisted he had purchased them in Dubai from an Indian national, unaware they were stolen.
🚨🚨BREAKING NEWS 🚨🚨
An announcement from the Pakistan Jhelum Police Chief, the Inspector General and Lord Miles regarding the STOLEN AirPods.
I have MY AirPods back after 1 year!
TLDR; it was unknowingly sold to a Pakistani man by an Indian national who’s now been arrested… pic.twitter.com/WR7fP9OYhp
— Lord Miles Official (@real_lord_miles) June 27, 2025
Apparently, the police accepted the unwitting buyer’s explanation and offered to return them. They even gave Routledge the choice of receiving them by post or in person. He chose the latter.
Critics on social media quickly questioned Routledge’s logic of spending more money on flights and logistics than the value of the item itself. “Wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper to just buy a new pair?” one user asked. Another chimed in: “Yeah, I wouldn’t put those back in my ears. I’d just cut the loss.”
Routledge’s response? He was already “in the region” for business—in Afghanistan—and would be passing through Pakistan en route to Karachi.
Some Pakistanis on social media think it is wholesome, a huge PR win for the country, while others are sceptical, and many are wondering how a person could go to such lengths for mere AirPods.
“200$ Kay airpod k pichay dunya utha li hay (He’s caused such a ruckus over $200)”, wrote an X user.
“Lollywood take notes — next sequel to London Nahi Jaunga [a 2022 Pakistani film] London se AirPods Lene, Jhelum Jaonga,” wrote an amused X user.
“That’s the kind of energy I want in life,” said others.
Routledge, on his part, is now offering free services to track lost AirPods as a public service and has assured his followers that he will also make a video on the whole saga.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)