Find My iPhone app thwarts another thief
It's becoming a familiar story: a ne'er-do-well miscreant attempts to steal an iPhone, only to be thwarted by Apple's free Find My iPhone app. Today's tale comes from Manchester, England.
James Bird is an aerospace engineering student at Manchester University. As he recounts, when his iPhone was stolen he alerted his friend, Nick, who tracked the iPhone using Find My iPhone on his computer.
Nick then handed his own phone to James and a mutual friend Alex, who received running commentary on the iPhone's whereabouts from Nick back at the computer. Finally they spied the man who likely had the phone and he took off on foot. After a footrace, James and Alex chased the man onto a bus and confronted him. James asked for the phone and the man denied having it, but the bus driver refused to drive until the suspect could prove he was not in possession of the phone. Realizing he was caught, he handed the iPhone over.
As fate would have it, there was a police car behind the bus. The suspect was then arrested.
Go, technology! I've had first-hand experience myself with using Find My iPhone to retrieve a lost (but not stolen) iPhone. This is the first app everyone should install -- even if you're not in the habit of losing your phone while preparing a skydiving run.
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It's becoming a familiar story: a ne'er-do-well miscreant attempts to steal an iPhone, only to be thwarted by Apple's free Find My iPhone...
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hmmm, i still prefer my way of protecting my investment. an extra 13 dollars per year on comprehensive tenants / home insurance gives me deductible free replacement coverage, whether i lose my iphone, spill a drink on it, drop it, my kid throws it, or it gets stolen. also much safer then chasing / tracking someone around town whos likely to pull the sim card before long anyways.
March 24 2011 at 9:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyBleh to copy and paste.
March 24 2011 at 3:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI feel left out... I want to have my Find My iPhone adventure, but when I lost it in a foreign country it had data services off so I couldn't track it... Sucks!
March 24 2011 at 3:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replysomeone in the US is going to get shot sooner or later for confonting an iPhone thef.
March 24 2011 at 3:43 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyA guy with a gun is most likely to show the gun before he steals the device. A snatch and run thief is likely to be running because they can not defend themselves.
March 24 2011 at 6:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI found an iPhone in the street a few months ago; It didn't have Find My Phone turned on, but when It rang, I quizzed the caller on the address of the owner and returned it to him.
I then recommended he subscribe to MobileMe and enable Find My iPhone.
He could have just made the phone ping when the guy said he didn't have it.... Oh you don't have it? Whats that beeping in your pocket then. Bam
March 24 2011 at 2:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI just had a similar experience! My wife lost her 3Gs in the park as we were taking our dog to a walk. After realizing she had lost it (2 hours later) I used my iphone 4 with the "Find my iPhone" app to track it. It looked like it was near the vet office, where we had gone before the walk, so I first thought that the GPS was failing being indoors. Turned out it was not in the vet, so I tracked it to the exact position, where about 10 people were siting. I used the message option, wrote "please give this phone back!", sent it and there goes the pinging sound coming from a woman! I asked her politely to give it back, which luckily she did, apologizing and saying that she had wanted to return it all along. Right! She didn't even pick it up when we called!
March 24 2011 at 2:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyApple needs to make the deletion of "Find My Phone" password protected. There are tech aware thieves out there too.
March 24 2011 at 1:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyLove it. Now Apple needs to come up with "find my mac".
March 24 2011 at 12:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI love that the "bus driver refused to drive." That would NEVER happen in NYC.
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