Apple working with NYC cops to find stolen iPhone

So it's amazing how people complain about how expensive apple's sh*tty products are, but did it ever occur to someone that this sort of putting out every fire could strain a company's resources which in turn could raise the price of the products? why is it that people get sooooo hell bent when their apple products are at stake? its a rare thing to see the same thing being done when its competitors don't do sh*t to rectify problems... people need to stop putting apple on a special pedestal. and when people read stories like this, they feel they are just as entitled as the previous person. people steal, break sh*t and lose things... it's a way of life and life isn't always fair. But when you own a "coveted" device like this, you should know what your getting yourself into. and if you dont... then you've been living under a rock and don't even deserve to have such a piece of technology. And don't they have some sort of find my iphone app too? What happens if this happens to her blackberry, is she going to have another hissy fit?!

Most companies process for dealing with stolen phones or computers is to assume positive intent of all its customers. The only department that can hand any stolen device issues is its corporate security team that will only communicates with law enforcement. If this lady had simply followed the instructions given to her by the CSR agents at Apple, she would have had a much simpler time, I have had a macbook stolen and followed the Apple agents advice and got a police report and the police had apple flag it as stolen. This was ONLY possible through the police department's communication with Apple's Corporate Security team. People don't listen anymore, this lady wanted her way, and refused to follow the procedure that is in place for issues just like hers.

Remember folks, Customer Service is just a marketing slogan...

"it is disappointing that it required the victim emailing a CEO to get any real traction on the problem"

No, it is disappointing that the victim didn't fill out a police report, which if you read the original story you linked to, you'll see would have solved this problem a lot quicker.

Still, good on Apple for coming good to help out their customer, and for keeping their karma in check.

I know a lady who recently got her stolen iphone back, she reported her phone as stolen and provided the police with the serial number of the iphone which showed up in a pawn shop. The police here in south florida have detectives who rotate through the various pawn shops and frequently find the stolen property.

Someone who worked at my job was caught and convicted after he stole a number of personal laptops of fellow employees and pawned them. He was easily caught because someone who pawns items here must provide their I.D. (drivers license) when they pawn something.

The crook never thought the police would ever look in pawn shops for the stuff he stole.

if apple garners the reputation of helping people whose items are stolen, then there will be less theft of these items - as thieves know there will be no market for them, and they have a higher chance of getting caught. So all iPhone owners win.

I couldn't care less what motorola or nokia do.

Keep in mind that Apple and AT&T do not do what they reasonably could do to stop the use of "lost" iPhones. Based on the following article they don't make any effort to disable service (which they can do, as is done in Europe, by tracking the IMEI number for devices), preferring to provide service to a new customer who knowingly or not is using a purloined device.

Gadget Makers Can Find Thief, but Don’t Ask
Librado Romero/The New York Times

Samuel Borgese, who recently lost his Kindle, says Amazon needs another registration step for secondhand Kindles.
By DAVID SEGAL
Published: September 6, 2009

For decades, when an item was lost or stolen, a consumer went through three stages of grief: anger, mourning and acceptance. You would be miffed, then sad and then you would move on, in large part because moving on was the only option.Then came the Digital Age and with it, gadgets that manufacturers can keep tabs on — and even profit from — when they wind up in the hands of someone who has found or poached them. Which, in turn, has led to a fourth stage of gadget-related grief: rage.

Specifically, rage at the gadget makers, which often know exactly who has a missing or stolen device, because in many instances it has been registered to a new user.

But many tech companies will not disclose information about the new owners of missing devices unless a police officer calls with a search warrant. Even a request to simply shut down service — which would deter thieves by rendering their pilfered gadget useless — is typically refused.

The problem, which nobody had to deal with before smartphones and satellite radios, has reached new heights with the Kindle reader from Amazon, with its ability to download books wirelessly and store hundreds of titles on a single device.

On Web sites devoted to the e-book reader, including Blog Kindle and Amazon’s own Kindle Community board, many customers have been in a snit over Amazon’s policy on stolen Kindles.

Samuel Borgese, for instance, is still irate about the response from Amazon when he recently lost his Kindle. After leaving it on a plane, he canceled his account so that nobody could charge books to his credit card. Then he asked Amazon to put the serial number of his wayward device on a kind of do-not-register list that would render it inoperable — to “brick it” in tech speak.

Amazon’s policy is that it will help locate a missing Kindle only if the company is contacted by a police officer bearing a subpoena. Mr. Borgese, who lives in Manhattan, questions whether hunting down a $300 e-book reader would rank as a priority for the New York Police Department.

He began to see ulterior motives when he twice sent e-mail messages to Amazon seeking an address to send a police report and got no reply.

“I finally concluded,” Mr. Borgese said, “that Amazon knew the device was being used and preferred to sell content to anyone who possessed the device, rather than assist in returning it to its rightful owner.”

Drew Herdener, an Amazon spokesman, said only that the company acted in accordance with the law and cooperated with law enforcement officials. “Beyond that, we aren’t going to speculate on hypotheticals,” he wrote in an e-mail message.

The complaints have left Amazon with a new public relations dilemma. In July, when Amazon remotely deleted titles from Kindles, citing copyright reasons, it was accused of heavy-handedness. If the company were to shut down a Kindle that had been erroneously reported as stolen, it might be accused of playing cop, judge and jury. Then again, it is also possible that Amazon is simply avoiding the financial burden of adjudicating claims.

Whatever the reasoning, Amazon’s policy is hardly unique.

Sirius XM Radio also says it needs to see a subpoena from a police officer before it will deactivate or hand over information about missing radios. Patrick Reilly, a company spokesman, said the goal was “to protect the original subscriber who has lost the radio, but also not to incriminate someone who legitimately comes in possession of a radio.”

Radios that have been reported stolen, he added, are reactivated only after someone provides a “proof of purchase,” like a receipt from eBay.

But former customers who have inquired about the fate of their stolen radios have been dismayed at how little company representatives are willing to help.

January 07 2010 at 2:11 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

From what I read in the original post , they still weren't helping her after she had the police report. So they could have helped, but didn't...... We wont ever know what she really was told by Apple or the NYPD or what her situation is like , but if what she's saying is true, you cant deny Apple having the responsibility to do the right thing in this case

And yes, Apple should help out every customer who gets their Apple product stolen or lost (okay lost not so much since that cant be proven).....I'm not saying they should launch a full out investigation for every little claim but doing something about it if it gets back in their hands is not too much to ask for.

Why does Apple have no obligation in helping her?

Police report and the whole run-around from Apple and the NYPD set aside....

An Apple product was stolen, Apple will shortly be receiving this stolen (and broken) product and sending it back(fixed) to someone who did not acquire this product legally (which is a crime in itself). Apple would be involved in criminal activity, possession of stolen property with intent to benefit a person other than the owner is illegal in New York State.

Okay maybe if she had the police report things would have gone differently, but the original post says "The two officers also told me that even if I had a police report it would still be up to Apple and AT&T to decide how to proceed with the situation." -- sounds odd but that isn't the point of this post.

There's no reason that Apple, a public corporation shouldn't have a moral/ethical responsibility to serve the public, especially when the public is their customer.

She still should have filed a police report! Why would she not want to in the first place? From what I understand, she would not have received the run around in the first place if she hadn't been so damned lazy.