That’s why I mentioned the buzzer can be removed within 30 seconds. With like a staple & droplet of superglue I think.
I think it may alert nearby phones if it’s been around them for 8 hours straight or some shit - but if you haven’t noticed your board stolen in that time, your problem I guess. It’s also why I say to drill a hole and epoxy it into the board - they’re not going to find it even with an alert.
Credit: I’ve worked for a company who makes fleet management software/hardware and personal trackers.
The problem with the stolen item tracker is that the endgame generally is legally pretty fuzzy. Civilian GPS has +/-8m accuracy in the best case scenario. It’s maybe okay to pinpoint a dwelling in the middle of nowhere, but if it’s an apartment block, you’re screwed. Even for private homes, no judge will give a search warrant based on a 16m circle of confusion. Maybe if you visually ID the perp and give cops the info where they live.
Where I’m from, many motorbikes, quads and even cars get left in forests to cool down before they’re moved to disassembly. That’s when we figured it’s okay to use the GPS tracker and repo your stuff. With that said - we would always tell people to never do recoveries by themselves and just involve the cops asap. Advising otherwise would be a legal suicide for us.
I do sometimes leave my board outside unattended in some neighborhoods if I’m quickly in and out of a store. But keep in mind that it’s a 20kg urban carver which is hard to carry. The only real danger is that someone quickly puts it in their car and drives off.
As for getting into fights… Not worth it unless you’re protecting someone dear. Having grown up in a bad neighborhood, I’ve seen plenty of scraps go real south real fast. It’s incredibly easy to kill people and badly maim them. All it takes is one bad fall, you know - like on an esk8… You’re putting yourself in great physical danger and in legal one as well. A mace spray or a taser is the safest way to put someone in line physically. I’ve seen the biggest and baddest dudes break down after getting maced. Just be sure to not mace yourself or your friends, have seen it and it’s hilarious.
My man 
Dude, I’ve seen a kid bring a posse to a fight. Everything starts out with the same shoving and pushing like a thousand other times. So apparently shit’s about go down and the kid whips out a can of pepper spray for a nice chemical warfare opener. His plan was to spray the opposing bruisers but get this, he’s standing downwind from them and sprays in a wide arc to get most of them. And the spray is fukn aerosol, not the spicy silly string. Dude maces himself and a couple of other guys he brought and the posse turns on him and start landing punches on the crying kid. Shortly afterwards I met some of the opposing guys and saw them red eyed and in tears, thought they were maced, but turns out they laughed themselves to tears.
Im in CT, long story short, we should ride.
This would be an utterly redundant statement were it not for the US. It’s just so completely insane it’s hilarious.
It’s fucking absurd that you’re allowed (in some states) to use lethal force for the most tenuous of reasons. In Canada we’ve gone to the other extreme where even if you’re defending yourself against a violent attack if it’s deemed u didn’t use “proportional” force you’ll be the one in cuffs. There’s been incidents where people have had their homes broken into, defended themselves against the intruder w force and then been arrested. For e.g. if u pepper sprayed an intruder in ur own hm you’ll get the book thrown at u. Also pretty absurd.
What about a screamer? something you can remotely activate (or auto-activates as soon as it gets out of BT range) but is buried deep in the battery pack so impossible for the thief to disable? The amount of power these boards have you could get pretty loud.
Presumably as soon as it went off they would ditch the board?
Optionally as soon as it started screaming it could also text you with its GPS coordinates.
If that happened I would just prefer the coordinates text without the screaming. If it had SMS ability, why not be able to text it to turn the screamer on and off. For example, once the cops arrive. 
I completely agree with you, but theft is also punishable by death in many countries.
Edit: this comment reads darker out of context
This jumped to life or death situations pretty quickly… Like there is no middle ground scenario.
If someone steals my board, I’m not going to whip a gun out and plug them in the back.
I’m also not going to just stand there yelling at them to stop. I’m going to chase that fucker down and get my board back. The level of physicality reached depends on the level of physical resistance faced. I’m not going to smash someone’s face in for just death clutching my board and not letting go. I’m also not going to get cold cocked by underestimating a situation.
Gotta size everything up in those wrinkly brains first 
OP you seem pretty cool and understanding/open to viewpoints. You’re my internet hero of the day. Glad you and your board are good.
I like the screamer idea. Some gps trackers has geo fence too. In other words, once the theif leave my invincible walls i created. The gps tracker will alert me and track the theif realtime. The problem is… none of the gps trackers has speaker build into it.lol
Theft and petty crime is usually the result of poverty and mental health. Should some one be punished with physical punishment no. Should someone get real help and a chance to get their life back on track yes. The thing is the USA ignores mental health and poverty. Also if you get a record its really hard to find a good job, which just leads to more crime. But if you go stealing someone stuff their is a chance you might get beat up. I mean im not just gonna let someone run off with my stuff. I feel bad for peoples situations but that doesnt mean im just gonna let them get away. Doesnt mean i would be willing use deadly force thats over kill and not worth it. But its hard to figure out what the right move is in the moment. Understanding why people steal and having sympathy for what led them to those choice is good. This does not excuse their actions nor should it be tolerated.
This is the one I use instead of the Apple thingy:
It was nice having it in my board that was under the greyhound on the way to carve pdx. Whenever we stopped I could pop open the app and make sure it isn’t going walkabout since I can’t see it.
This would actually be a great way of letting you know that you’ve left your board on as well 
Don’t look at your phone and continue skating 
But for real I kept getting those. Watching the map of every where we went.
I’m convinced that the airtags were murdering my battery life.
The tractive has an audible alert you can turn on. It will also switch to a Bluetooth type tracking mode when you get close. I was able to find my board on third floor of a five floor building when my lab mate hid it (at my request)
I don’t go out that often, but I’ll make sure to look twice if I see anyone on a mountain board in the Austin area. Not sure if they would take it that far north but it won’t hurt to keep it in mind while I’m out.