So I locate my stolen iPhone. Then what?

Actually, it was not my iPhone, but that of a child of a friend of mine. I go to their house, and they ask me about locating the lost phone because I advise them about iCloud, etc. We locate the phone in a place suggesting that someone found it and took it there, apparently in a small apartment block. The big brother wants to go there and demand the iPhone back. I hesitate, and we have other immediate plans, but I suggest the phone company be contacted to avoid long distance charges. We get back a few hours later and learn that the phone has now been disabled by the phone company, and they indicate there have been bad experiences reported by people who have tried to demand their iPhones back. The phone company said the only thing done with the phone was that a few text messages were sent out-of-country, and I thought that since the closest thing to the last location of the phone on the map was a set of mailboxes, I wouldn't be surprised if the phone was on its way out of the country as well. I am no longer able to trace the disabled phone, but the next day I put a note on the dumpster at the apartment block with my number on it.

So did I take the right course? One problem was I needed to leave within a few minutes of locating the phone, and I didn't have much chance to think about it.

Sulten said:

most would of called the cops and gone there with them. have them sort it out and possible get the phone back. problem is your delayed and now its disabled..

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And knock on all the 8-10 doors in the apartment block?

And was I too concerned about long-distance charges, or could I have waited until the next day to call the phone company, or the police.

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NathanMuir said:

while using FMi to have the iPhone in question play a sound or display a text message.

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When I'm there at each door with the police.

I'm thinking now that if I would have set up an iCloud linked account on the family iMac with iMessages, I would have been able to read the text messages that were sent out, and texted them back, if that would have helped.

lordofthereef said:

What would that accomplish, exactly?

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It would have given me another way to collect information about the situation, and maybe of communicating with the person who had the phone.

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DavoteK said:

Only if it was being sent to another iPhone. If it was sent as a text, you ain't seeing that in iMessage unfortunately.

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OK, sounds reasonable. Collecting information that way would be unlikely.

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Satnam1989 said:

ummm you would be amazed how accurate the location tracking is....99% of the time my iPhone is within 3m....at least here in Canada.....when I am connected to my WiFi....my router is located in the centre of the house...we have two located in the centre on each floor and my iPhone shows it being in my room instead of just showing the location of the house.....if you keep zooming in it can show you quiet close.....best thing to do for anyone in the future who is reading this if you can/want to call the Police, Go with them, keep zooming in on the location and soon you will be able to locate it at its exact spot (99% I would say) then knock on the door, immediately if/when someone comes to door and police question only then activate the sound on the iPhone....because if you be stupid enough to play sound in advance you will most likely end up alerting the person and giving them heads up to prepare to be confronted but no one would expect the sound to be playing at the last minute.....thats just what I would do in such a situation and I hope it helps someone

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Sounds good. We tried calling the phone to see if someone picked up, but got no answer. With your approach, we would not have tried sending a message with a contact number first either.

We watched it go back and forth a few times between the building and the parking lot, and last saw it under a tree. When I got to the area the next day, I could see the tree was on the other side of a wall, so that was inaccurate. I had called the people in the house on the other side of the wall before I went there, and they searched their backyard and found nothing.

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sulpfiction said:

The phone was stolen. You got lucky and were able to track it for a brief period. U knew where it was and chose not to call the cops, or to go there. What else are u expecting people to tell u? It's over now. The only chance u had is now gone. And yes, I would have brought an officer to each and every door.

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I was caught flat-footed, and I want to think it through again now so I'll have a better idea what to do next time. The older brother was really trying to convince me to take him there so he could confront them.

The phone was initially lost by a kid in probably a high-traffic area, so it could easily have been picked up by another kid.

lordofthereef said:

And you're making the assumption that the phone was found and someone immediately went off to start sending texts back and forth from this strange number?

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The phone company said there were several texts sent.

So I'm hearing two approaches.

1: Assume the people are good and just made a mistake in picking up the iPhone when they had the chance. Send them a message over Find-My-iPhone and somehow arrange to get it back. But there were contact numbers in the address book where they could have called if they had wanted to make the effort to try to find the owner. And there is a chance they're illegal aliens (because of the out-of-country text messages) and would want to avoid any kind of trouble or contact.

(On the note I posted on the dumpster I mentioned the option of taking the phone to a nearby store, thus allowing them to avoid any contact with me personally.)

2: Assume the people are bad. Call the police. Give no advance notice over Find-My-iPhone, and if the police are willing, go knock on doors, ready to trigger a sound on the phone.

BlizzardBolt said:

Many kids are tech driven now, I would be surprised if they had not restore the iPhone to factory settings via iTunes already.

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I believe it was lost for a few days before I found out about it, so it wasn't reset immediately.

If I would have realized that contacting the phone company would result in losing the ability to track the phone, I might have told them to just wait until I returned from my appointment before doing anything. But then I was concerned about phone charges.