I LOVE APPLE!!!! Tracked thieves using "Find my iPhone" !!

[lyceumHQ]

Not true at all.

Completely true. I know several people who've had phones stolen and the police didnt so much as bother to come out.

I was with my friend when she was knocked over and her phone grabbed from her hand. The police came out three days later. Gave her a crime number and told her straight that they wouldn't be looking for whoever had done it as it wasnt a priority.

 

[bushido]

Where? This sounds like something that'd happen in Europe, as the police don't typically bother to do this in the U.S.

Lol here in spain the police would just pretend they don't speak your language or tell you to wait in line with all the tourists at the station

 

[jackwills]

this is awesome!

 

[Bahroo]

The best thing EVER just happened! I just had to write here and spread the news, hopefully to help someone else.

My wife and her friend were just mugged and had their handbags stolen by a passer by in a van. Luckily her friend had her phone in her hand and they called me straight away. I jumped straight into iCloud and used "Find My iPhone" to track the phone and saw their exact location on a map!!!

The police, AMAZING and super helpful police, god bless these guys, arrived on the scene really quickly and I guided them with the map straight to them. They chased them down and caught them!!!! They also recovered 10 other peoples handbags in the van too!

THANK YOU APPLE!!!!!!! If you ever have your bag or phone stolen, log into iCloud straight away and get the police!

Is this related to you?


http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2014/11/28/iphone-app-leads-police-burglary-suspect-garden-city/19611901/

 

[BvizioN]

Completely true. I know several people who've had phones stolen and the police didnt so much as bother to come out.
.

Well, where do I start?

You said "Wouldn't happen in the UK". The very fact that the story OP is telling here happened in London, renders your claim false. London is in UK, so yes... it would happen in UK.

You know several people, but I also know several people who had their phones snatched from them (2 of them students) and Police did respond swiftly to take reports and investigate it.

Does Police in UK respond always to incidents like this? Probably not! But to claim it wouldn't happen in UK is just absurd, and you know it.

 

[lyceumHQ]

Well, where do I start?

You said "Wouldn't happen in the UK". The very fact that the story OP is telling here happened in London, renders your claim false. London is in UK, so yes... it would happen in UK.

You know several people, but I also know several people who had their phones snatched from them (2 of them students) and Police did respond swiftly to take reports and investigate it.

Does Police in UK respond always to incidents like this? Probably not! But to claim it wouldn't happen in UK is just absurd, and you know it.

What else can I do but base my opinion on my own experiences? And they have been that the police couldn't care less about mobile phones being stolen. Never mind come out and chase people down for them.

Thats my experience. So hardly absurd.

 

[JayLenochiniMac]

What else can I do but base my opinion on my own experiences? And they have been that the police couldn't care less about mobile phones being stolen. Never mind come out and chase people down for them.

Thats my experience. So hardly absurd.

Just because it has not personally happened to you doesn't make it "not true."

 

[BvizioN]

What else can I do but base my opinion on my own experiences? And they have been that the police couldn't care less about mobile phones being stolen. Never mind come out and chase people down for them.

Thats my experience. So hardly absurd.

I get what you are saying man, but a personal experience (neither yours or mine) does not reflect the overall thing. Different people, different places, different experiences.

 

[scaredpoet]

What else can I do but base my opinion on my own experiences?

For starters, you can assume only that your experience applies, at best, only to your specific situation. Police in different areas and at different times have priorities that shift. It's unfortunate when those priorities are not in your favor at the time it happens to you, but that's the way it is. The answer isn't to just to just shrug and go home, nor is it to go vigilante. You still report the crime and hope for resolution.

 

[lyceumHQ]

For starters, you can assume only that your experience applies, at best, only to your specific situation. Police in different areas and at different times have priorities that shift. It's unfortunate when those priorities are not in your favor at the time it happens to you, but that's the way it is. The answer isn't to just to just shrug and go home, nor is it to go vigilante. You still report the crime and hope for resolution.

Right. So others can have an opinion that's positive but mine isn't valid because its negative. Okay. Thanks.

I'm entirely bored now.

 

[scaredpoet]

Right. So others can have an opinion that's positive but mine isn't valid because its negative.

That's not what I said at all. Once again, you're applying singular statements and assuming they're blanket declarations, universally asserted as always true or always false. But that just isn't the case. Perhaps this is why the cops didn't help you?

Look, I'm sorry you didn't get your phone back. I too had my phone stolen and the police didn't help me either. But that doesn't mean I'm going to tell people that Find My iPhone is useless. Far from it. Because I've also had experiences where the outcome was very different, and FindMyI was quite instrumental in a recovery from loss or theft. And there are cases, lots of them in fact, where the police are less uninterested, and where people's phones do in fact get recovered by them. The OP being one of those cases. So it doesn't hurt to try.

 

[Lucifer666]

If you are robbed (especially with a weapon) and have a reliable way to actually track the perps, and the police do not follow up on it, then they are completely incompetent.

Apple offers a perfect way to nab bad guys here.

If any of you have been robbed like this and the police have done nothing please post the precinct and badge numbers of the lame cops.

I've been robbed a few times and the cops did nothing as there was nothing to do. Totally understandable.

Not the case here.

 

[Norwegianguy]

The same happened to me!
My iPhone was stolen in Argentina. The local police (4 guys) went out to the suburb where my iPad/Find iPhone told me where the iPhone was, found the iPhone and arrested the guy.
Fantastic!
I also tracked down the iPhone once I forgot it on the bus.
Great feature!

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Lol here in spain the police would just pretend they don't speak your language or tell you to wait in line with all the tourists at the station

Yep I experienced that in Spain when I had something stolen. I was told by a translator in Ibiza that I could either wait 5 hours for the police chief to sign my insurance form given to me by our rep, or pay him 100 Euro's and he would sign it straight away! I wrote to the Spanish authorities when I got home and complained about what had happened and they assured me they would look into it. The final outcome was a letter informing me that my accusation could not have possibly happened and that sort of thing does not go on. Hilarious really. 😱

 

[yjchua95]

Find my iPhone even helped me track down my stolen car once.

Back then when I was based in KL, Malaysia, someone made off with my Beemer and thought that he could get away with it.

The prick wasn't bright enough to notice an iPhone which I used as an iPod in the car, located near the gearshift.

After activating Find my iPhone, I went to the cops and they even sent a chase helicopter, and after locating my car, they busted an entire ring of car thieves, along with 21 other stolen cars at a shipping port, being loaded into containers to be shipped elsewhere.

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Wouldn't happen in the UK



If I reported my phone stolen te police wouldn't even bother to come out. Even if I had the exact location on map and the name and address of the person who stole it.

Not in my experience.

I was burgled and despite this great news story apple were useless in my case. The police were great as five days later my devices all of a sudden were activated and showing. I immediately contacted the burglary team who kept me on the telephone line and went out whilst I was patched in.

They went to the street I directed them too. But unfortunately couldn't exactly pin point the property. I enabled remote access to my machine into the police control room so they could look but it had the same result.

They checked the police national computer for known suspects but there were too many in that area to get a search warrant issued. As the service provided by Apple doesn't show an IP address by default they couldn't get a warrant for a specific address that way either. The apple process to provide such information take a stupid six weeks.

The devices never appeared again during the next three weeks so I remotely wiped them at the next opportunity.

Great story for the OP, really pleased. But also lucky. Unfortunately in my experience I've learned that the police is willing but the apple service is not providing all the required details for them to follow it up without doubt.

 

[gnasher729]

I don't think the thought of a victim fighting back is a deterrent at all. Criminals generally weigh up the risks in situations like this and regardless of the reaction I think they would have a go.

Most criminals are stupid and don't weigh up any risks. If criminals were clever, we wouldn't have jails.

 

[dannyyankou]

Just a few days ago, a woman lost her iPhone in a Target store. So, I opened find my iPhone, had her enter in her information, played the lost sound, and she found it within 2 minutes.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Most criminals are stupid and don't weigh up any risks. If criminals were clever, we wouldn't have jails.

That is very true in many cases yes.

There was an article on our news recently that said the percentage of iPhone thefts in London was down 20% because of the introduction of the 'Find my iPhone' feature. They are no longer desirable to thieves because they can so easily be bricked.

 

[Paco II]

I LOVE APPLE!!!! Tracked thieves using "Find my iPhone" !!

38% drop here in San Francisco. Kind of amazing. Sadly, criminals just find new avenues for theft.

http://m.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/...find-easy-pickings-in-parked-cars-5899337.php

That is very true in many cases yes.

There was an article on our news recently that said the percentage of iPhone thefts in London was down 20% because of the introduction of the 'Find my iPhone' feature. They are no longer desirable to thieves because they can so easily be bricked.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Yep I experienced that in Spain when I had something stolen. I was told by a translator in Ibiza that I could either wait 5 hours for the police chief to sign my insurance form given to me by our rep, or pay him 100 Euro's and he would sign it straight away! I wrote to the Spanish authorities when I got home and complained about what had happened and they assured me they would look into it. The final outcome was a letter informing me that my accusation could not have possibly happened and that sort of thing does not go on. Hilarious really. 😱

Out of interest, why didn't you pay the 100 euros?

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

Out of interest, why didn't you pay the 100 euros?

Principle really. I didn't see why I should pay a crooked policeman a bribe in effect to sign a piece of paper that he should have signed straight away and for free. I don't support criminals like that.

I lost a few hours and he lost 100 Euros so I think I walked away the winner. 🙂

 

[NellSounz]

Wow!! This one should go down in the history books!!

 

[cyb3rdud3]

Principle really. I didn't see why I should pay a crooked policeman a bribe in effect to sign a piece of paper that he should have signed straight away and for free. I don't support criminals like that.

I lost a few hours and he lost 100 Euros so I think I walked away the winner. 🙂

Ahem he didn't loose anything. Well not besides his integrity. He didn't have it in the first place. Yet you did 😉 well not besides your principles.

 

[Badrottie]

You got better police than we do. I have heard cases where people called the police to tell them where their stolen iPhone was and they were told that they were too busy to track them down.

Not that happy with our police but glad they got your stuff back and no one was hurt.

This...I wish I do not live in the city of Los Angeles.... LAPD is not helping us.