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Can apple track a stolen iPad

J

jweaver

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 15, 2011
58
0
Last night my friend left his iPad in a taxi.. He was drunk and was trying to help his even more drunk girlfriend out of the cab and by the time he got into the house it was gone..

He either left it in the taxi, or outside his house.. Either way it was an expensive night out.

I was just wondering whether there was anything that Apple can to track or lock his iPad based on the serial number?

If he had activated "Find My Ipad" then perhaps this would have helped.. But he didn't so I am just wondering whether there is any other way?

I look forwards to your thoughts

Jon
 
blueroom said:
Nope.
Click to expand...

Ahh.. Ah well.. Thought I would ask.. And if you activate "Find My Ipad"? would this have helped in these circumstances?

If so, it looks like I had better enable it on mine, as I keep putting it off and last nights events show how easily something like this can happen.
 
benhollberg said:
Absolutely.
Click to expand...

I have set up "Find my phone" on mine now (as I was too lazy to get around to it before) and am gutted for my friend

If he had done this, we would have been able to find out exactly where it was.. But he didn't do it and Apple can't be blamed for their unwillingness to help, as they provide this service for free, and if he was too lazy to bother, thats his fault.

Thanks for your help.

Jon
 
jweaver said:
Last night my friend left his iPad in a taxi.. He was drunk and was trying to help his even more drunk girlfriend out of the cab and by the time he got into the house it was gone..

He either left it in the taxi, or outside his house.. Either way it was an expensive night out.

I was just wondering whether there was anything that Apple can to track or lock his iPad based on the serial number?

If he had activated "Find My Ipad" then perhaps this would have helped.. But he didn't so I am just wondering whether there is any other way?

I look forwards to your thoughts

Jon
Click to expand...

I hope he called the cab company and checked their lost & found.
 
Ashwood11 said:
I hope he called the cab company and checked their lost & found.
Click to expand...

Of course.. We did all that before going down this route.. They have checked their cabs and there is no sign of it.. They have asked the driver and he has not seen it.. They do seem potentially keen to give us the details of the other customers who they transported after us...

Personally I would hand this over to the police now, as its still a theft which ever way you look at it.. IF ONLY he had setup "Find My iPad".. THIs would have told us exactly where it was and combined with information from the Taxi firm, it would have been pretty easy to find it.

That said I have just been thinking about it and I am not sure if "Find My Ipad" would even work.. Since it had a Passcode, there is no way that they would have got in, to register it on their WiFi network.. They only way the 'thief' would be able to use it is if they did a factory reset, and then "Find My Ipad" would no longer be configured.. So whilst its a nice idea, I don't think that it would actually work in a real world application, unless the iPad actively hunts for an open HotSpot so that it can notify the server about its location.


Jon
 
Lesson learned = active "Find my iPad" ..... No one thinks this is worth the time to take doing until its a day late dollar short :/ Thanks for sharing and making people aware!
 
No , they don't . I think it is one feature that Apple should be able to provide for their Customer. It's not easy loosing something that expensive.
 
the real question here is...why in the hell would you take an iPad out with you to a bar/club/wherever it is you would get drunk and take a taxi??
 
There is nothing Apple can do, as it has been said before. If your friend would have taken the 3 minutes to set up find my iPad, he very well could have located it by now. Thats providing that it's 3G, if it were wifi you'd have to wait for it to be connected to a network.

Sent from my iPad.
 
Alexa2370 said:
No , they don't . I think it is one feature that Apple should be able to provide for their Customer. It's not easy loosing something that expensive.
Click to expand...

That's plain silly.

Cars are stolen every day, too. Ditto for laptops. I've never heard of any auto company tracking a stolen vehicle (unless you've purchased OnStar - and then it's OnStar that does the tracking), or computer manufacturers tracking down stolen merchandise. That's the job of law enforcement, not manufacturers.
 
Rick420 said:
Here's a great website to report a stolen iPad online:

http://stolen-ipad.com/
Click to expand...

"Great" as in an opportunity for 14-year-olds to prank their friends by reporting their iPads as stolen? That's the problem with private websites acting in a pseudo law enforcement capacity. There's next to no verification required.

At least when you file a report with the police they confirm your identity and there are ramifications for making false claims.
 
ideal.dreams said:
There is nothing Apple can do, as it has been said before. If your friend would have taken the 3 minutes to set up find my iPad, he very well could have located it by now. Thats providing that it's 3G, if it were wifi you'd have to wait for it to be connected to a network.

Sent from my iPad.
Click to expand...

...and if you've set the iPad to request permission before connecting to a WiFi network and set it to only connect to those it has in the past, it is basically a crapshoot. Particularly because most WiFi networks are password-protected these days.
 
I do have to say here in the Netherlands a stolen iPad can be find back with help of Find My ... If you have proven it is yours (by serial number, payment or any other legal paper) they will go after it. Ofcourse it is no prio but it definetly works.


Just like I said, in The Netherlands, but I don't really think it works like that in the US and A :p
 
ideal.dreams said:
There is nothing Apple can do, as it has been said before. If your friend would have taken the 3 minutes to set up find my iPad, he very well could have located it by now. Thats providing that it's 3G, if it were wifi you'd have to wait for it to be connected to a network.

Sent from my iPad.
Click to expand...

Which (if locked with a passcode) would never happen. That's what is useless about find my iPad / wifi version.
 
thesiren said:
the real question here is...why in the hell would you take an iPad out with you to a bar/club/wherever it is you would get drunk and take a taxi??
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, there are more than a few bars in my area that have open wifi and I've seen iPads at the bar along with other wireless devices. :)
 
barkomatic said:
Believe it or not, there are more than a few bars in my area that have open wifi and I've seen iPads at the bar along with other wireless devices. :)
Click to expand...

To quote the wise Chris Rock:

"Just because you can do something doesn't make it a good idea."
 
Kid down the street left his iPhone on the trunk when changing clothes at a local water park. They drove off and the kid realized he didn't have his phone. He activated "Find my iPhone" and was able to backtrack and find it where it had fallen on the side of the road....I swear it was like an iPhone ad!
 
If you have ios5 on it and you turned on find my ipad, then you could call apple and ask them how to erase data and lock it remotely. They could also track it down. Ive been to apple many times and the workers are very friendly so dont be afraid to ask
 
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