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iPhone-grabbing thief picks wrong phone at wrong time

by Michael Rose Jul 22nd 2010 at 12:00AM

We love iPhone/iPad vs. unwitting criminal stories, especially ones that end happily. Across this category, though, it's hard to hold a candle to the story of Jordan Sturm, Horatio Toure, and one particular purloined iPhone.

As reported by the Chronicle, Sturm was standing on the street in San Francisco's SOMA neighborhood this past Monday when Toure rode up on a bicycle, grabbed the iPhone out of her hand and sped away. Most of the time, the phone would be gone for good, or (with luck) tracked down by Apple's Find My iPhone service. In this particular case, though, there was an easier way.

The iPhone in question is owned by Covia Labs, and it was being used to test the company's Alert & Respond software for police officers and military personnel. CEO David Kahn had asked Sturm to step outside -- with a phone running A&R's GPS live tracking app -- so he could demonstrate the geographic tool to his PR folk. Moments after she walked out the door, the system came to life... and showed an indicator heading off down the street at high speed. Oops.

Sturm ran back inside, they called police; Toure was arrested ten minutes later and about half a mile away, in possession of the stolen phone. Unlucky for him, but lucky for Covia Labs; they saved the cost of a new iPhone and gained a whole bunch of free publicity.

Note: Several commenters are insinuating that this theft was set up as a stunt to provide exposure for Covia Labs. There is absolutely no evidence to support that theory at this time; the suspect was arrested and details on his arrest were provided by the SFPD, per the original SFGate story. The suspect was booked on felony charges and placed in jail.

[via Techmeme]

Photo by oedipusphinx | flickr: cc

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We love iPhone/iPad vs. unwitting criminal stories, especially ones that end happily. Across this category, though, it's hard to hold a...
 

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Christian de Saint Preux

What happens when the person shuts off the phone? and what happens if they do a restore? Phone gone...

I think there should be phone tracking via APPLE. The phone HAS to be activated via apple. Apple should provide such a service and not a crappy one like mobile me provides at that. At ANY point in time the phone can communicate with Apple and if it is registered as stolen, the phone can SILENTLY be GPS activated and provide it's location.

Proof of ownership and/or registration of the phone to apple could be setup and the requirement of ownership transfer could be setup on the device.

This can all be done electronically and not involve extra costs to Apple or the such. This has been my main gripe with find my iphone. If the phone gets shut off and restored, bye bye iPhone.

July 22 2010 at 2:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
AppleZilla

He's another Oswald! A Patsy that took the fall for Covia Labs!

Not really.

July 22 2010 at 1:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jansperus

I'm not surprised people think it's fake. This is the Internet, where people also think businesses purposely created shortages so they lose millions of dollars to gain sone publicity and real Youtube videos are called fake while obviously fake ones are thought to be real. Not much intelligence around here.
That story is pretty amusing though. I would love to have seen that jerk's face when he was caught.

July 22 2010 at 10:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
spasmdada

Ok, there is something fishy in this story that stands out and proves it's fraud. The SF police answered the phone, responded in a timely manner and actually caught a bad guy. There had to be a payoff somewhere within the SFPD.

July 22 2010 at 10:15 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael Rose

Who says there's no official police report? The guy was arrested -- there IS an official police report.

July 22 2010 at 9:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TigraChelle

Regardless of it being a PR stunt or not, the result is is same since everyone here has read about this and is conversing about it. It is "Highly" likely that most if not all of you will share this story with at least one person who will in turn share. If this incident is nearly as "lame" or " pathetic" as a few of you claim what does that say about yourself for wasting your obviously valuable time and energies??

July 22 2010 at 9:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Danny

awesome.

July 22 2010 at 8:45 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
malte

lame pr-story. and you even wrote about it.;(

July 22 2010 at 3:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nudel

@Yuusharo
Stealing an iPhone would hardly be considered "criminal fraud", but in answer to your proposition: "Duh... Yes of course!"

July 22 2010 at 2:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to nudel's comment
Dave

No, but paying someone to steal your own phone and then reporting it to the police would be. Read the comment more good like.

July 22 2010 at 2:53 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nudel

Well, sure, perhaps in that specific context (and if that is actually what happened), but who's to say the police weren't in on it too?... It's only the *reporting* that's making it a particular story line... When publicity is the intent, anything is possible.

July 22 2010 at 4:33 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Lin

iPhone retails at $600-700.00 so, regardless of what was paid for the phone initially, it is not a petty theft. It's a felony.

July 22 2010 at 12:48 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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