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katypick

macrumors newbie
Jan 28, 2014
1
0
Hermosa Beach, CA
Hi all,
Read all of your stories and was wondering if you could help me out. My iPhone 5s was stolen this weekend after only having been in my possession for 3 months :( and I definitely cannot afford another full price one. The person who stole it turned it off immediately and turned it on the following day for 3 minutes in West Covina, La Puente area. It's been off since.

Will I ever see my phone again?

AT&T seems to have no faith and keeps telling me it has since been wiped or jail broke. Apple seems to have full faith in their new iOS 7 software and is certain that when the phone is turned on again I will be notified via Find My iPhone, regardless if it is wiped or whatever… but they can't wipe my phone without my Apple ID and password… Just wondering what the reality of it is. Hope you guys can give me some answers :)
 

alent1234

macrumors 603
Jun 19, 2009
5,688
170
i think that there are businesses that have special machines or special access back to apple where they can wipe phones without the previous apple ID. like when you trade a phone in to anyone they have to have some way of wiping it.

chances are the phone is overseas and someone has a setup with a business to wipe it to full factory reset where apple will not consider it your phone
 

kupkakez

macrumors 68020
Apr 4, 2011
2,061
1,254
Austin, TX
Hi all,
Read all of your stories and was wondering if you could help me out. My iPhone 5s was stolen this weekend after only having been in my possession for 3 months :( and I definitely cannot afford another full price one. The person who stole it turned it off immediately and turned it on the following day for 3 minutes in West Covina, La Puente area. It's been off since.

Will I ever see my phone again?

AT&T seems to have no faith and keeps telling me it has since been wiped or jail broke. Apple seems to have full faith in their new iOS 7 software and is certain that when the phone is turned on again I will be notified via Find My iPhone, regardless if it is wiped or whatever… but they can't wipe my phone without my Apple ID and password… Just wondering what the reality of it is. Hope you guys can give me some answers :)

You aren't going to see that phone again.
 

Russiaone

macrumors 6502
Jun 7, 2010
430
159
Wow, that's some balls to call up the owner of the stolen iphone to ask for his billing zip code and last 4 of his social in order to activate his missing iphone.
Good thing there is that security check from AT&T cause without that the phone will never be able to activate.
Unless they pull a scam and bring it to Apple to have it replaced.


This guy has watched Seinfeld, obviously.
 

Retired Cat

macrumors 65816
Jun 12, 2013
1,210
380
i think that there are businesses that have special machines or special access back to apple where they can wipe phones without the previous apple ID. like when you trade a phone in to anyone they have to have some way of wiping it.



chances are the phone is overseas and someone has a setup with a business to wipe it to full factory reset where apple will not consider it your phone


Apple itself may have some way to override AppleID, but I think its most likely that a stolen phone that cannot be re-activated will be sold for parts.

Sadly, the stolen iPhone is by now likely in pieces at a shady repair shop overseas :-(
 

bassett700

macrumors member
Jan 8, 2009
93
12
Dingus, VA
Hi all,
Read all of your stories and was wondering if you could help me out. My iPhone 5s was stolen this weekend after only having been in my possession for 3 months :( and I definitely cannot afford another full price one. The person who stole it turned it off immediately and turned it on the following day for 3 minutes in West Covina, La Puente area. It's been off since.

Will I ever see my phone again?

I checked with Magic Eyeball (a Magic 8 Ball app) and it said, "Don't count on it."
 

ionjohn

macrumors 65816
Jun 5, 2013
1,185
10
Canada
Hi all,
Read all of your stories and was wondering if you could help me out. My iPhone 5s was stolen this weekend after only having been in my possession for 3 months :( and I definitely cannot afford another full price one. The person who stole it turned it off immediately and turned it on the following day for 3 minutes in West Covina, La Puente area. It's been off since.

Will I ever see my phone again?

AT&T seems to have no faith and keeps telling me it has since been wiped or jail broke. Apple seems to have full faith in their new iOS 7 software and is certain that when the phone is turned on again I will be notified via Find My iPhone, regardless if it is wiped or whatever… but they can't wipe my phone without my Apple ID and password… Just wondering what the reality of it is. Hope you guys can give me some answers :)

You won't ever see it again sorry but that's life, some people are bad.
 
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