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Amazing story: iP4S stolen and recovered in Panama

FuNGi

FuNGi

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 26, 2010
1,122
33
California
This is a great story of love lost and re-found:

A friend here in Panama had his brand new unlocked iP4S (yes, that would be $700) stolen from a field station while working on Bocas del Toro. He then had to fly back to Panama City with his tail tucked between his legs figuring it was lost for good. The saga that follows is taken from his Facebook page. I thought some here would enjoy it.

Feb. 4th
"super pissed. someone stole my iphone 4s in Bocas. Damnit!"

Feb. 9th
"Incredible. The dude that stole my iphone last weekend at STRI Bocas just "checked-in" on facebook to let me know where he is... in Almarante. Ahhh"

Feb. 10th
"I know where you are you jerk. Bring back my phone"

At this point friends told him of the iCloud's ability to track the phone so he proceeded to do just that (see pic)...and call the local police forces who coordinated a raid on the location.

Feb. 10th
"WOW! Thank you iCloud and the Bocas del Toro Police! They successfully recovered my stolen iPhone after I gave them the GPS coordinates of where it was. They surrounded the house and questioned the guys, but they denied knowing about the phone. So I was able to remotely play an alarm through iCloud, and the phone started ringing insanely loud in the guy's pocket. Everyone (most of all the guy) was stunned that it worked. Excellent job! Gracias!!"

Great story! Now if only my iP4 was unlocked I could leave it around field stations and not worry!
 

Attachments

  • iCloud to the rescue.jpg
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The police surrounded the house ?! Meaning more than one cop raided a house to recover a stolen iPhone!!??:eek:

Those guys must have been very bored and had nothing better to do. I somehow can't imagine the police in the States doing diddley about a stolen phone...or, at best, sending out one guy, maybe.

It's great that your friend had his phone recovered. I'm just amazed that such dramatic action was taken.:D
 
Shrink said:
The police surrounded the house ?! Meaning more than one cop raided a house to recover a stolen iPhone!!??:eek:

Those guys must have been very bored and had nothing better to do. I somehow can't imagine the police in the States doing diddley about a stolen phone...or, at best, sending out one guy, maybe.

It's great that your friend had his phone recovered. I'm just amazed that such dramatic action was taken.:D
Click to expand...

Yeah totally. The police in the Bocas area take tourism safety etc. pretty seriously. I assume they moved on the guy because a) it was fun for them and b) returning a tourist's (although he works here) electronics is a priority.
 
Shrink said:
The police surrounded the house ?! Meaning more than one cop raided a house to recover a stolen iPhone!!??:eek:

Those guys must have been very bored and had nothing better to do. I somehow can't imagine the police in the States doing diddley about a stolen phone...or, at best, sending out one guy, maybe.

It's great that your friend had his phone recovered. I'm just amazed that such dramatic action was taken.:D
Click to expand...

Everywhere I have lived (Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo area, and now bum F Iowa), Police come in 2's, 3's, or even 4's for anything/everything.
 
I wonder if Cops really do "raids" for an iphone...They maybe just send a Cop or two but how do they narrow down who actually has stolen the phone in a room full of people at a restaurant or something..
 
Sorry but any time people post threads like this I have to call BULLLLLLLL. I don't know the laws in Panama but I really don't see ANY LEA "surrounding" a house for a stolen cell phone. Now, I'm sure they had nothing better to do but do that but something tells me it just really never happened. I know in one of these threads the police caught a guy just before he jumped on a boat to escape. Yep, bs.

So OP is saying the "theif" checked into facebook on the owners FB page? Does that make sense?

If that pic is the actual pic of the "location" I'm assuming it was a tree house as the green dot is sitting on top of a tree?
 
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peapody said:
I wonder if Cops really do "raids" for an iphone...They maybe just send a Cop or two but how do they narrow down who actually has stolen the phone in a room full of people at a restaurant or something..
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thewitt said:
It's a fun story, but highly improbable.
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DroidRules said:
Sorry but any time people post threads like this I have to call BULLLLLLLL. I don't know the laws in Panama but I really don't see ANY LEA "surrounding" a house for a stolen cell phone. Now, I'm sure they had nothing better to do but do that but something tells me it just really never happened. I know in one of these threads the police caught a guy just before he jumped on a boat to escape. Yep, bs.

So OP is saying the "theif" checked into facebook on the owners FB page? Does that make sense?

If that pic is the actual pic of the "location" I'm assuming it was a tree house as the green dot is sitting on top of a tree?
Click to expand...

I see you all are having a hard time believing the story. I can assure you I didn't make it up and the person who regained his iPhone is a friend and colleague working as a biologist here in Panama (and his story was collaborated by another friend who was with him when the phone was stolen). I am not an attention seeker which, I assume, is why you think this story is bull.

@DroidRules, if you are going to insult the motives of people (as in your signature) you should at least proofread your garbled text. Also, have you ever used google earth to find a house? There are these things called trees that sometimes partially cover houses. The GPS coordinates were good enough to allow the police "raid" to single out a single house and recover the item.

I thought people would get a kick out of the story. Nothing more.:roll eyes:
 
DroidRules said:
....So OP is saying the "theif" checked into facebook on the owners FB page? Does that make sense?
...
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Sure, idiot opens up the already running Facebook app and does what he often does without realizing he is logged in as the OWNER of the phone, vs himself. My wife and I share an Ipad and I sometimes forget when looking at it that it is logged in under her name, not mine.
 
Just sounds highly improbable fungi. That's all. Glad it all worked out. I've been in Panama and cannot imagine the police sending even one officer to try to recover a stolen iPhone, unless they thought they could ransom it back to the owner, but I'm glad it worked out for your friend.
 
Hmm for those wondering why the cops would send more than one cop to recover a stolen phone, I'm betting that wasn't the only stolen item recovered. They may have been hoping to catch a gang of pickpockets or something like that. Anyway, cool story.
 
FuNGi said:
@DroidRules, if you are going to insult the motives of people (as in your signature) you should at least proofread your garbled text. Also, have you ever used google earth to find a house? There are these things called trees that sometimes partially cover houses. The GPS coordinates were good enough to allow the police "raid" to single out a single house and recover the item.

I thought people would get a kick out of the story. Nothing more.:roll eyes:
Click to expand...

How am I insulting anyone by asking them a simple question? I know it hit a soft spot with you as you are one of the people that think others care what device you have but don't be sad, you can always remove it from your signature.
Must have been a really big tree or a very small house.... I guess I can see a corner of a shanty there in the pic, I stand corrected :rolleyes:
As far as proofreading... what's the point? Correcting other members spelling and grammar is against the rules here on MR so it really doesn't matter how poor I speel or how ignant I sound ;)

I did get a kick out of your story, I always love good fiction.
 
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DroidRules said:
How am I insulting anyone by asking them a simple question? I know it hit a soft spot with you as you are one of the people that think others care what device you have but don't be sad, you can always remove it from your signature.
Must have been a really big tree or a very small house.... I guess I can see a corner of a shanty there in the pic, I stand corrected :rolleyes:
As far as proofreading... what's the point? Correcting other members spelling and grammar is against the rules here on MR so it really doesn't matter how poor I speel or how ignant I sound ;)

I did get a kick out of your story, I always love good fiction.
Click to expand...

OK. I just looked at your past posts and see that you are a serial critic. /discussion finished :cool:
 
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