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cosminnn93

macrumors member
Sep 10, 2014
72
2
my iPhone 4S got stolen and I went to the police with the IMEI and everything, even stated that I had findmyiphone activated, even knew who stole it and stuff and never got it back. this may have to do with the fact that police in Romania are a bunch of clueless guys.
 

neile45

macrumors regular
Jul 27, 2011
163
9
my wife's cousin lost her phone (stolen out of her buggy at walmart), and she used find my iphone to wind up at a trailer park and got it back. I would have never done this, especially without getting the police involved.
 

AndrewR23

Contributor
Jun 24, 2010
4,548
1,721
I have got my dads phone back with the jailbreak tweak ICaughtU Pro.

If your iPhone is on the lock screen, you cannot turn the phone off. Trying to turn the phone off will take your picture, send that picture and the phones location to my email.


Also sends a text message to any number you want.

Also entering the password wrong twice takes the pic, etc. This saved my dads phone about 2 months ago when he left it at the gym.

Thief constantly kept trying to turn it off and it kept taking pictures and sending the location to my email. Cops got him at his house.

Apples own find my iPhone is a joke. All the thief has to do is turn off the phone and its gone forever. Yes they can't use it and its a brick but you won't ever get it back most likely.
 

mercuryjones

macrumors 6502a
May 31, 2005
786
0
College Station, TX
I have got my dads phone back with the jailbreak tweak ICaughtU Pro.

If your iPhone is on the lock screen, you cannot turn the phone off. Trying to turn the phone off will take your picture, send that picture and the phones location to my email.


Also sends a text message to any number you want.

Also entering the password wrong twice takes the pic, etc. This saved my dads phone about 2 months ago when he left it at the gym.

Thief constantly kept trying to turn it off and it kept taking pictures and sending the location to my email. Cops got him at his house.

Apples own find my iPhone is a joke. All the thief has to do is turn off the phone and its gone forever. Yes they can't use it and its a brick but you won't ever get it back most likely.

Find my iPhone is a joke? If the thief can't ever use turn it on to use it again, what good is it to him? That's like me saying that your jailbreak option is a joke, because all the thief has to do is never use the phone again and you'll never get a notification.

My wife forgot her phone at the grocery store one day. Used Find my iPhone to track and then I sent the sound notification and a message with my number to call. Thankfully, someone had turned it in at the front desk, but they were asking why it was making noise when we walked up.
 

Obi Wan Kenobi

macrumors 6502a
Mar 9, 2011
502
338
London, UK
I've dealt with several cases at court where Find my iPhone has enabled the Police to follow the thief / robber to his location, arrest him, and the victim got the phone back.
 

AndrewR23

Contributor
Jun 24, 2010
4,548
1,721
Find my iPhone is a joke? If the thief can't ever use turn it on to use it again, what good is it to him? That's like me saying that your jailbreak option is a joke, because all the thief has to do is never use the phone again and you'll never get a notification.

My wife forgot her phone at the grocery store one day. Used Find my iPhone to track and then I sent the sound notification and a message with my number to call. Thankfully, someone had turned it in at the front desk, but they were asking why it was making noise when we walked up.

Yes find my iPhone is a joke because all the thief has to do is shut the phone off and it can't be tracked. Apple could easily enable the phone to not be turned off from the lock screen and the phone can still be trackable.

And obviously if the thief never used the phone with the jail break tweak then we can still track it because the phone can't be turned off!
 

Rigby

macrumors 603
Aug 5, 2008
6,222
10,168
San Jose, CA
And obviously if the thief never used the phone with the jail break tweak then we can still track it because the phone can't be turned off!
The first thing a thief of at least moderate intelligence would do is pop out the SIM, or put the phone in a mylar bag. Nothing you can do about it.
 

Lylyluvda916

macrumors regular
Aug 28, 2012
153
0
The first thing a thief of at least moderate intelligence would do is pop out the SIM, or put the phone in a mylar bag. Nothing you can do about it.

I've never had one stolen. My cousin did and he had find my iPhone in and activation lock in aswell. He let a friend borrow it who did lose it and we were able to track it down to a place 30 minutes from here.

We didn't try to recover it but did leave a message in the phone that it was stolen bs could be return by calling my number just incase.

Didn't hear anything about it for months. Out of the blue some person called me and tried to either have it sold back to us because she had paid for it or unlock it for her. We explained that she could return it and charges wouldn't be filed or she could keep it but it would do her no good as it had the activation lock. She kept it.

We haven't gotten it back but are pleased that she or whoever has it now can not use it at all.
 

Rigby

macrumors 603
Aug 5, 2008
6,222
10,168
San Jose, CA
Didn't hear anything about it for months. Out of the blue some person called me and tried to either have it sold back to us because she had paid for it or unlock it for her. We explained that she could return it and charges wouldn't be filed or she could keep it but it would do her no good as it had the activation lock. She kept it.

We haven't gotten it back but are pleased that she or whoever has it now can not use it at all.
Yep, IMO the activation lock is the main value in Find my iPhone when it comes to theft. If my phone was stolen, I would never try to retrieve it even if I could track the location. Much too risky. I'd try to remote-wipe the phone to protect my data, report it to the police (who'll probably not be able to do much about it due to lack of resources), and then file a claim for a new phone with the cellphone insurance that comes for free with my credit card ...
 

ChrisTX

macrumors 68030
Dec 30, 2009
2,690
54
Texas
A friend of mine had his iPhone 4S stolen while visiting Dallas. After tracking his phone via find my iPhone and contacting the local authorities there, they determined they weren't going to help us out. Long story short the police in Dallas were of no help whatsoever. Lucky for my friend I had a spare iPhone 4 that I gave him.
 

Taki

macrumors regular
Nov 25, 2007
116
178
My husband noticed he didn't have his iPhone after he got to work during a business trip. He emailed me from his laptop while I was at work. I checked with Find iPhone on my iPhone, and it looked like his iPhone was at the hotel he was staying. He had checked out that morning but went back to the hotel. Once he was there I started to make it beep from Find iPhone until they heard it. They found his iPhone in a linen cart. Apparently he left it in the bed and maid didn't notice it, either. Luckily he caught it before it went into the washer!
 

mercuryjones

macrumors 6502a
May 31, 2005
786
0
College Station, TX
Yes find my iPhone is a joke because all the thief has to do is shut the phone off and it can't be tracked. Apple could easily enable the phone to not be turned off from the lock screen and the phone can still be trackable.

And obviously if the thief never used the phone with the jail break tweak then we can still track it because the phone can't be turned off!

Thing is, eventually, the thief or whomever he sold it to, would turn in back on. At which point, I can then track it again. Plus, with the activation lock, they aren't going to get into it anyways. I may or may not get the phone back, but whoever stole it isn't going to get much use out of it anyway.
 

Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
55,258
53,008
Behind the Lens, UK
My husband noticed he didn't have his iPhone after he got to work during a business trip. He emailed me from his laptop while I was at work. I checked with Find iPhone on my iPhone, and it looked like his iPhone was at the hotel he was staying. He had checked out that morning but went back to the hotel. Once he was there I started to make it beep from Find iPhone until they heard it. They found his iPhone in a linen cart. Apparently he left it in the bed and maid didn't notice it, either. Luckily he caught it before it went into the washer!

That's a lucky break.

I've never lost or had a phone stolen. Mind you I could say the same about keys and a wallet to.
 

Zeos

macrumors 6502
Jan 24, 2008
425
25
Yes, my iPhone 4... Left it at a Burger King in Artesia, NM and tracked it to an apt complex nearby. Played the sound and could hear it through an open window. Knocked on the door, received initial denial, played the sound again, and got it back.
 

johnmed

macrumors 6502
Sep 14, 2009
271
434
uk
My wife had her phone found by a porter at the hospital where she was a nurse a few years back. Unbeknown to her, rather than return it to her (he knew her) he finished his shift and took it home with him.

Obviously the actions of an innocent man!!!

Anyway, she didn't know where her shiny new iPhone was. Having rung me at home, I had the sister in law mind our son, while I and the brother in law drove to the address showing on find my iPhone.

Shortly after we got there the wife, her colleague and the 5-0 turned up. (I'd told her where it was and made her promise not to go without police.

Anyway, we'd knocked at a few houses (at midnight) before the post possible arrived. 3rd of 4th house was the porter who had 'found' the iphone.

He knew nothing about a phone until the 5-0 explained the matter would be treated 'reasonably' if the phone was returned.

So yeah, crims aren't too clever. And yeah it works, and yeah we didn't know the 5-0 would show up, and the police even admitted they originally didn't believe the story given by my wife. And still didn't until my wife identified the porter and his neighbours told us he was a porter at the local hospital before we knocked!!!
 
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