Tired of running, iPhone thief gives up, sits down

[Hum]

SEATTLE ? Seattle police said a tired and out-of-breath thief on Capitol Hill gave up after he was chased by witnesses who saw him take a woman?s iPhone.

On Saturday at 12:41 p.m., a witness called police to report that he saw a woman chasing a man at 13th Avenue East and East John Street yelling that her cellphone had been stolen.

Officers arrived at 13th Avenue East and East Denny Way and saw two witnesses standing over a man. They told officers that they had chased the man southbound through an alley from 13th Avenue East and East John Street after he stole the victim?s cellphone.

The witnesses said the worn-out thief gave up and sat down on the ground in the 1300 block of East Denny Way. He placed the cellphone on the ground and the two witnesses returned it to the victim.

According to the victim, the man asked to borrow her iPhone and she allowed him to make a call. Afterward, he ran away with the phone, she said.

Police said the 26-year-old man admitted to stealing the victim?s phone.

He was booked into King County Jail for investigation of theft and a no bail Edmonds Police Department misdemeanor warrant for DUI.

source

[jnelsoninjax]

Let this be a lesson to all you would be thief's, if your going to steal someones phone, make sure you are 'fit' enough to escape anyone who might have witnessed you stealing the phone!

[Hum]

How long would an iPhone be valuable ? A few hours, until it gets turned off ? Silliness.

[Growled Member]

It's a well known fact how fanatical Apple users are over their phones. :laugh:

[De.Bug]

How long would an iPhone be valuable ? A few hours, until it gets turned off ? Silliness.

So, you still have the hardware. Plus, if you're smart enough, you could possibly un-tether it from the carrier and move it to a different one I think. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've heard you can do that.

[CPressland]

So, you still have the hardware. Plus, if you're smart enough, you could possibly un-tether it from the carrier and move it to a different one I think. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've heard you can do that.

Yes, doable and very easy. But there are global lists of IMEI Numbers which are banned from all Cellular Networks. When an Mobile Device is stolen, it's added to this list. It basically makes it an iPod Touch.

Or, if you're my cousin, he logs into 'Find my iPhone', rounds up a few friends, and dismantles somebodies house with crowbars to get his iPhone back.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

So, you still have the hardware. Plus, if you're smart enough, you could possibly un-tether it from the carrier and move it to a different one I think. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've heard you can do that.

well if I'm remembering correctly the phone's ID will get blacklisted by apple and you won't even be able to do anything with the phone in iTunes

(though I could be completely wrong, this would be the smart thing for Apple to do though)

[Ci7]

lesson learned steal something say sammy Galaxy :p

[Hum]

So, you still have the hardware. Plus, if you're smart enough, you could possibly un-tether it from the carrier and move it to a different one I think. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've heard you can do that.

Criminal in the making :p

[n_K]

Just because it's blocked in the US doesn't mean it won't work overseas in countries that do not use IMEI checking, and yes, lots of countries don't.

Plus if you had the time and skill, you could open it up, desolder the bootrom/OTP and replace it with a custom-flashed one and viola, it works again.

I can't really see the relevance of the 'iphone' in the article at all, advertising? Guy stole phone and gave up, no need to mention if it was a nokia or sagem or whatnot.

[ILikeTobacco]

Just because it's blocked in the US doesn't mean it won't work overseas in countries that do not use IMEI checking, and yes, lots of countries don't.

Plus if you had the time and skill, you could open it up, desolder the bootrom/OTP and replace it with a custom-flashed one and viola, it works again.

I can't really see the relevance of the 'iphone' in the article at all, advertising? Guy stole phone and gave up, no need to mention if it was a nokia or sagem or whatnot.

And then people would be asking why kind of phone it was that was worth stealing in the first place. It's worth mentioning.