AirTag can’t be used to recover stolen item if thief has an iPhone? The AirTag has an anti-stalking mechanism, so than when an unknown AirTag moves with your iPhone you will get a notification.
This would mean that a thief who has an iPhone will get notified that the stolen item is being tracked. The thief then can locate the AirTag with their own iPhone and disable it.
So for theft situations the AirTag seems to be pretty useless to me.
Am I missing something? Is there a solution to this built in?
AirTags are not marketed by Apple as an anti-theft solution. It is for lost items only (i.e. when you can't remember where you left your car keys in your home).
If an AirTag is stolen, the thieve can detect the tag (given that they have an iPhone running a sufficiently new version of iOS) and disable it. Indeed even if they haven't, the AirTag will after a time emit a sound when moved, alerting the thief to its presence. However, you will still be able to see its last known location in Find My.