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Find my iPhone rescues two phones at Busch Gardens

by Mel Martin Feb 25th 2010 at 2:00PM

It was like something out of CSI. The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that the snatched iPhones incident began when a mom and her stepdaughter were getting aboard the SheiKra roller coaster at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida. The theme park provides unlocked storage bins for people to put things in so they don't fly away during the ride, so their two iPhones (in purses) were dropped in. Probably not a very safe thing to do, but that's what they did.

When the 13-year-old girl cut her lip during the ride, the pair was about to rush off to a first aid station -- forgetting about their possessions -- but before they could get back to the storage bin, someone snatched the purse with the iPhones inside.

The police and park security were called, and then the 13-year-old crime victim remembered MobileMe. In an employee break room, the teenager logged into the family MobileMe account using an officer's laptop. (It's worth noting that while this process used to require a desktop browser, you can now access Find My iPhone from another iPhone.)

The officers dispatched another squad car to go to the displayed location, where a man sitting outside an apartment building hurriedly concealed a cellphone when the officers approached.

You guessed it. He had one of the stolen iPhones; the other one was inside the apartment. Police reports say Richard Emerson, 25, admitted the theft and is charged with grand theft. He's out on bail, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement says it is his 19th arrest.

It took 45 minutes from the time of the theft to the arrest of the man. MobileMe may not be for everybody, but the Find my iPhone feature is getting a pretty good track record.

It's probably a good idea to emphasize that recovering stolen property is a police matter, not something you should do on your own.

[Thanks to Dan for the tip]

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It was like something out of CSI. The St. Petersburg Times is reporting that the snatched iPhones incident began when a mom and her...
 

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Tom

Not entirely on the subject, but I noticed something with the speed of MobileMe. It's faster! a lot! I almost never use iDisk because it takes ages, but yesterday it was very fast. As a European user, that's a first. Let's hope it was not a one off.

February 26 2010 at 3:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
officer dan

this story is more about the stupidity of most crooks than it is about anything else.

car thieves are now using $30 gps scrambling devices to block lojack. the gps signal is incredibly weak and easy to block.

February 25 2010 at 5:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Anthony Calzadilla

Gawsh - I hate thieves, I love it when the idiots get caught.

February 25 2010 at 4:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
icruise

My mom lost her phone a few weeks ago, and we were able to use MobileMe to determine that she had dropped it in a restaurant parking lot. By the time she got back there, we could see that someone had taken it since it was moving. But we were able to use MobileMe to both send a message to the person telling them to call one of our other phones and lock the phone so they couldn't use it, so they were able to get it back.

I think the location tracking aspect of Find My iPhone often gets the most attention, but in many cases it's the other features that might be more useful, since you often can't get a very specific fix on a location. You might know which block of a neighborhood the phone is in, but that's not really good enough. But if you lock the phone and also send a message that you're offering a reward for its return, the would-be thief might decide they're better off getting a few bucks than dealing with a phone they can't use.

February 25 2010 at 4:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
JohnG

If you don't want to pay the full $99 for Mobile me, there is always the $4.99 Undercover for iPhone.

See http://orbicule.com/undercover/iphone

February 25 2010 at 3:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew

Screw waiting for the police. I'm going commando, kids, and if you get in the way I'll make you a hole so big your butt will seem like a pore in comparison.

February 25 2010 at 3:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Beanie

A lot of people don't know now that Find My iPhone will now work through Mobile Safari on the iPhone, in case you don't have a computer nearby, but have someone with a mobile browser or another iPhone. Just go to www.me.com on the device.

February 25 2010 at 3:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Beanie's comment
SubGenius

Awww sweet! When did this happen?
Thanks for the tip.

February 25 2010 at 3:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
n00neimp0rtant

I'll stick with Cerebro, the free jailbreak solution

February 25 2010 at 2:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
roger

Seems that the Find My iPhone feature works a whole lot better than the webcam setup that Pennsylvania school district has going. Not sure how a webcam will really help locate a "missing" laptop but they're sticking with that story.

February 25 2010 at 2:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
3 replies to roger's comment
tcbritt

an article about two of my favorites, iPhone and Busch Gardens.

February 25 2010 at 2:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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