Just wow... thought this was a cool story, and so much doubting here. I'll try to address a few of the comments.
Seriously... I've been a member here for quite a while. Why would I post a paid story? My daughter lives 2 hours from me, and is in grad school. She was out with friends when this happened. She called me, because I am the techie in the family and she needed help. That's what daughters do when they have a problem... they call Dad.
I believe this probably varies from place to place, and situation to situation. He said that they have only ever done this once before to recover a phone. I believe that the fact that it was 3am worked in our favor, because not that many people were out and about. If the guy had gone into a house or an apartment, I'm sure it wouldn't have worked out like this.
The thief was standing in a gas station parking lot when they found him. Again, 3am... so pretty easy to spot. It was in what the cop described as a bad area of the city. The phone was stolen from the downtown high end part of the city, and he had gone several miles with it. I wasn't there, but I assume the guy acted suspicious then they approached him. I believe they just asked him if he had a phone and he pulled it out. My daughter described it to the cop at her house, and he confirmed it was hers. It still had a pink and purple case on it, which would be odd for a guy. She told them what picture was on the screen, and we had locked the phone remotely and gave them the passcode.
The guy said his buddy gave it to him and he didn't know it was stolen. He said they were riding in a cab together and got into an argument and he was kicked out of the cab. That matches the path of the tracking, as there was a long drive and then some odd moving around ending in the parking lot. He was alone, and on foot, and couldn't have gotten that far purely on foot. Also had an out of state driver's license.
I'm sure that cops can read people's body language and such.
As I said, it was 3am and the guy was standing in a gas station parking lot. There aren't a lot of people standing around at 3am. If it had been noon, they would have probably not started asking everyone in the parking lot if they had a phone. My guess is the guy looked suspicious.
We almost hit the "wipe" button a few times, fearing he'd figure out it was being tracked, over the 30-40 minutes we were tracking before the police showed up. I didn't think they would do anything, and thought we risked not being able to wipe it. But after the cop showed up and was talking to us, he realized the movement had slowed ... we actually thought it stopped, but I think the guy was on foot.... he said they'd send someone over to see if they saw anything. Maybe it was a slow night... not sure. No one was more shocked at this outcome than me. I could not image how they would use the location to recover it for the reasons mentioned. They can't start knocking on doors at 3am for a phone.
Here is a screen print of the whole path with the final green down where the guy was finally located. The original location it was taken from was inside the horseshoe shaped orange road just northeast of the first point where is started tracking... while they were in the taxi.
Not sure what else to say... just thought it was a cool story to share.
By the way, they did not arrest the guy. Because he denied he stole it, and my daughter did not see who took it, there was no proof he was the thief. They could have charged him with position of stolen property, but he said that would be a hard one because he could claim he didn't know. So we were happy to recover the phone and left it at that. I'm sure they scared the crap out of the guy, particularly because they pulled up and found him at 3am so far from where he started.
Seriously... I've been a member here for quite a while. Why would I post a paid story? My daughter lives 2 hours from me, and is in grad school. She was out with friends when this happened. She called me, because I am the techie in the family and she needed help. That's what daughters do when they have a problem... they call Dad.
The police wouldn't follow FindMyiPhone when my wife's iPhone 4S was stolen last summer.
I believe this probably varies from place to place, and situation to situation. He said that they have only ever done this once before to recover a phone. I believe that the fact that it was 3am worked in our favor, because not that many people were out and about. If the guy had gone into a house or an apartment, I'm sure it wouldn't have worked out like this.
The thief was standing in a gas station parking lot when they found him. Again, 3am... so pretty easy to spot. It was in what the cop described as a bad area of the city. The phone was stolen from the downtown high end part of the city, and he had gone several miles with it. I wasn't there, but I assume the guy acted suspicious then they approached him. I believe they just asked him if he had a phone and he pulled it out. My daughter described it to the cop at her house, and he confirmed it was hers. It still had a pink and purple case on it, which would be odd for a guy. She told them what picture was on the screen, and we had locked the phone remotely and gave them the passcode.
The guy said his buddy gave it to him and he didn't know it was stolen. He said they were riding in a cab together and got into an argument and he was kicked out of the cab. That matches the path of the tracking, as there was a long drive and then some odd moving around ending in the parking lot. He was alone, and on foot, and couldn't have gotten that far purely on foot. Also had an out of state driver's license.
I'm sure that cops can read people's body language and such.
As I said, it was 3am and the guy was standing in a gas station parking lot. There aren't a lot of people standing around at 3am. If it had been noon, they would have probably not started asking everyone in the parking lot if they had a phone. My guess is the guy looked suspicious.
We almost hit the "wipe" button a few times, fearing he'd figure out it was being tracked, over the 30-40 minutes we were tracking before the police showed up. I didn't think they would do anything, and thought we risked not being able to wipe it. But after the cop showed up and was talking to us, he realized the movement had slowed ... we actually thought it stopped, but I think the guy was on foot.... he said they'd send someone over to see if they saw anything. Maybe it was a slow night... not sure. No one was more shocked at this outcome than me. I could not image how they would use the location to recover it for the reasons mentioned. They can't start knocking on doors at 3am for a phone.
Here is a screen print of the whole path with the final green down where the guy was finally located. The original location it was taken from was inside the horseshoe shaped orange road just northeast of the first point where is started tracking... while they were in the taxi.
Not sure what else to say... just thought it was a cool story to share.
By the way, they did not arrest the guy. Because he denied he stole it, and my daughter did not see who took it, there was no proof he was the thief. They could have charged him with position of stolen property, but he said that would be a hard one because he could claim he didn't know. So we were happy to recover the phone and left it at that. I'm sure they scared the crap out of the guy, particularly because they pulled up and found him at 3am so far from where he started.
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