He donated shoes to the Red Cross, then tracked them — what he discovered was shocking

Show summary Hide summary

• Why track a pair of old trainers?
• A journey across borders
• From donation bin to market stall
• The Red Cross responds
• Why transparency matters

What happens to the clothes and shoes we donate with the best intentions? One man decided to find out — and the truth wasn’t what he expected.

Why track a pair of old trainers?

Most of us assume that when we drop our old clothes into a donation bin, they’ll find their way to someone in need. That’s the hope, at least. In Germany, with tens of thousands of collection containers scattered across cities and towns, that system is firmly in place. But one man, Moe Haa, a curious social media creator, wanted to know exactly what happened once the lid on the bin snapped shut.

So, he did what any tech-savvy sleuth might do — he hid an AirTag in the sole of a battered pair of trainers and donated them to a local Red Cross bin. His goal? Trace their journey and see whether these so-called “gifts” really reached people who needed them, or if they ended up somewhere a little less charitable.

A journey across borders

The story begins in a sleepy town in Bavaria, where Moe deposited the shoes. From there, his phone — synced to the AirTag using Apple’s Find My network — began lighting up. First stop: Munich. All seemed normal. Then the journey took a sharp turn, both geographically and narratively.

The shoes crossed into Austria, cruised through Slovenia, and rolled down into Croatia. Finally, they landed in Bosnia and Herzegovina — nearly 800 kilometres from where they started. Not quite the direct route you might expect for a donated pair of trainers.

But it wasn’t the distance that raised eyebrows — it was the destination.

From donation bin to market stall

The AirTag finally settled in a small Bosnian town. According to Moe’s GPS tracking, the trainers were sitting in what appeared to be a second-hand clothing market. Intrigued (and by now fully invested in his own investigation), Moe flew over to see for himself.

Sure enough, his donated trainers were sitting neatly on a shelf alongside second-hand jumpers, children’s toys, and kitchenware. But here’s the twist: they were being sold for €10. That’s right — a donation meant for those in need had ended up with a price tag.

To get more information, Moe posed as a customer and casually chatted to the vendor. When he asked where the items came from, she vaguely said they were “imported from Germany”. When he pushed further and asked whether they were donated items, she denied it entirely.

The Red Cross responds

The video Moe shared quickly gained traction online, sparking questions and criticism. In response, the German Red Cross issued a public statement, confirming what many had suspected: not all donations are handed directly to those in need.

Instead, they explained, donations follow different paths:

• Some items are given directly to people facing hardship in Germany.
• Others are sold to recycling or resale companies, often in countries where demand for cheap clothing is higher.

The money made from these sales, they added, goes back into humanitarian projects, not into profit. Still, the lack of transparency left a bitter taste — especially for donors who assumed their contributions were helping someone directly.

Why transparency matters

On paper, nothing illegal happened. The items were processed through established channels. But the ethical question lingers: when people give out of kindness, expecting their donations to be gifted — not sold — should they be told more about what really happens?

In an era where shoppers demand clear supply chains and traceability, it’s no stretch to expect the same standards for charitable giving.

Interestingly, Moe’s stunt wasn’t the first of its kind. A year earlier, an American woman named Brandy Deason used AirTags to expose a fake recycling scheme in Houston. Her tagged “recyclables” ended up in illegal landfills, sparking public outrage and even a resignation at city level.

So perhaps what we’re seeing is a new era of digital accountability — where everyday people, equipped with consumer tech, can shine a light on systems that don’t always do what they promise.

For now, Moe’s trainers may be back on his feet, but the questions he raised continue to walk on.

You might also like:

• He hid an AirTag in shoes donated to charity – and uncovered a shady resale scheme
• Lottery winner donates winnings to charities after saying God blessed her to bless others
• Book Fairies: 25,000 books for New York children after major donation
• 46,000 knitted mice set Guinness World Record as crafting community donates to rescue cats
• Teddy bear toss by hockey team collects 80,000 stuffed animals with help from local teen