iPhones are expensive, and some people want them without paying, and so they steal them.PCPro is reporting on one case in which the new "Find My iPhone" feature helped one man and his mates to track down his stolen iPhone and retrieve it from the thief who pinched it.
LiveJournal blogger Kevin Miller, a.k.a. happywaffle, from Austin, Texas, explains in detail that he and some friends were up in Chicago "to attend Brickworld, the world's largest Lego convention". The other night they had finished up in a rundown bar in uptown Chicago. It was there, as happywaffle later discovered, that he had lost his phone--and that one of the barmen had found it and decided to keep it.
Luckily for happywaffle, he "had just activated the brand-new Find My iPhone service. Even better, [one of his friends] had a Sprint (yes, Sprint) USB dongle giving him Internet access over 3G on his MacBook Pro. Excited to try it out, [they] hopped onto me.com and clicked the Find My iPhone link."
To make a long story short (see happywaffle's blog for the long version), the three were able, after some false starts, to zero in on the bloke who had made off with happywaffle's iPhone. They had tried sending messages to the iPhone asking for whoever had it to call them and arrange to return it, but the thieving barman had simply read the messages and ignored them. At one point the "Find My iPhone" feature on happywaffle's iPhone seemed to have been turned off, but it later transpired that it had not.
happywaffle and his mates were able to track the phone down to Medill Street (photo courtesy of happywaffle's blog):
A few more "Find My iPhones" later and the they were converging on the barman on a nearby street.
happywaffle called out to the man they had identified, asking, "Have you got it?" The barman, realising he had been caught, gave up the iPhone without a struggle.
Although this story turned out to have a happy ending, many would caution against such acts of vigilantism. One former resident of Chicago commenting on the blog entry writes to happywaffle that he is "glad you got your phone back. [Y]ou're lucky you didn't get shot in the face."
It would only be that if they gave the guy the proper beatdown he deserved and then carted him over to the cops !!
Cool story though.
You need to have MobileMe if I remember well
Which means you need to expend $99 dollars more for a freaking service that you can have for free from Google or other platform.
You need to have MobileMe if I remember well
I meant $0.00 out of the advertising budget for Apple on this. I checked out the site and saw it had a $99 yearly fee.
So true... but luckily for Apple, this had a happy ending and results in some free press for them.
My friend's brother was robbed by a gun man of his cell phone. He realised it was someone from the neighborhood so he went to the Police and had them track the guy down. All for this phone:
Nokia 1110
http://www.gsmarena.com/%20nokia_1110-1187.php
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This might not look dramatic step, him going to Police about a gunman who robbed him but ask it from anyone who has lived in Pakistan and knows how crappy the Police is and how hostile the robbers can be in this regard i.e. how dare you go to Police and bam bam.
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and haha, hope this isn't a hidden Apple/Apple Fan boys publicity stunt for the iPhone :p.
Without those, it may as well not have the features.
Without those, it may as well not have the features.
Could deffinately do with some passcode security on the on/off button!
Without those, it may as well not have the features.
You can do that if there's no passcode set.
Removed
Last edited by shockz on 24 Jun 2009 - 07:40
And I agree, this vigilantism is not safe. Just go to the cops, tell them what happened, give them all the tools they need and bam, phone back fast and safe.
Go to the cops in any major city over something like this and you will get a report half-filled out and then tossed in the garbage after you walk out the door.
One of the reasons cops are stretched so thin is that people don't do anything for themselves anymore.
This guy did the right thing tracking it down, he should have then taken him to the cops but if you think going to the cops first even with this tracking info would have got his phone back you are not living in reality.
But still, would it be safer to try and get the cops to help you than getting your face blown off when you catch up to the theif?
not saying i support theft but, a smart thief would at least take the battery out and wait a couple of days before turning the phone back on
More like i'd shoot the ****** in the face for taking even if did hand it back.
It's stupid to take the law in your own hands and walk up to some stranger who you have no idea how his day has gone so far and could have decided he is going to commit suicide..and you walk up asking for your iphone..and the guy says...hell..you can go with me...and shoots you and himself.
Not smart...call the police.
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