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iPhone 5 stolen, got an email from finder

Troneas said:
its a horrible experience which makes you feel really impotent.
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I believe they have pills for that now.

Slicktype said:
Reply back and give him an offer to return. Bring friends with a bat and beat out of him !
No cops needed ...
Slime balls need to be dealt with in a non sensible way.
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One, if he does that, he'll end up sharing a cell with the thief.

Two, from that e-mail, it sounds like the guy who currently has the phone bought it from the thief on Craigslist and has spent a few hundred bucks on a useless phone. He is not the guy who needs the piss beaten out of him. Maybe trying to sell it back to the OP to recoup his losses isn't the smartest idea, but someone's going to be stuck with the loss and it's either the OP or the sender.
 
iPhone 5 stolen, got an email from finder

Jalopybox said:
Get 10 of your biggest criminal friends, tell the guy to meet you under a freeway overpass. Have 5 of the felons cover all directions, about 100 yards away, have two of the felons hide in your trunk with bats, have one felon ride his bike by the transaction just as it's going down. Have the last two felons go to McDonalds and grab a few McRibs. When the perp shows up, tell him the money is in the trunk, pop it and go to town Rambo style. Get your phone and your money back.



Oh, have the felon on the bike have a Gopro and tape the whole thing at 120fps so it can be slow-mo'ed later. Post the link when it's over, I gotta see this.
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This wins best comment right here :)

But in all seriousness, definitely wait for the cops to call you back.

I had a similar thing happen to me with a bike, and it took a full year to get results... I had already forgotten about the incident pretty much, when a year later I got a check in the mail from the city for the value of the bike I had provided originally with my report of the theft.

I know it's not an iPhone, but it was still stolen property case in which the item isn't seen as a high priority, or of a type of property which the police is saturated with their cases of theft. In other words, they have tons of stolen bike reports daily, much like iPhones...
 
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ugcop said:
Totally the best part of IOS 7. Glad it is working and stolen iDevices are now worthless.

I know they can be sold for parts but the value to the thief has been reduced.
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Has that reduced or affected the devices being stolen or more of them being returned when stolen/lost (because whoever finds/gets them realizes it's not useful to them)? If not, then it really didn't do much for the end user realistically speaking.
 
C DM said:
Has that reduced or affected the devices being stolen or more of them being returned when stolen/lost (because whoever finds/gets them realizes it's not useful to them)? If not, then it really didn't do much for the end user realistically speaking.
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Nobody said thieves were the brightest light bulb in the room. We have only had IOS 7 for a few months. I doubt there are many crack heads reading about the latest technology. All they know is the last iPhone got them some money. As the word gets around most definitely you will see a decrease in thefts.
 
ugcop said:
Nobody said thieves were the brightest light bulb in the room. We have only had IOS 7 for a few months. I doubt there are many crack heads reading about the latest technology. All they know is the last iPhone got them some money. As the word gets around most definitely you will see a decrease in thefts.
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Let's hope that will be the case.
 
Jalopybox said:
Get 10 of your biggest criminal friends, tell the guy to meet you under a freeway overpass. Have 5 of the felons cover all directions, about 100 yards away, have two of the felons hide in your trunk with bats, have one felon ride his bike by the transaction just as it's going down. Have the last two felons go to McDonalds and grab a few McRibs. When the perp shows up, tell him the money is in the trunk, pop it and go to town Rambo style. Get your phone and your money back.

Oh, have the felon on the bike have a Gopro and tape the whole thing at 120fps so it can be slow-mo'ed later. Post the link when it's over, I gotta see this.
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I couldn't think of better advice and if the OP doesn't take note of this, he must be stark raving mad. :)
 
C DM said:
Has that reduced or affected the devices being stolen or more of them being returned when stolen/lost (because whoever finds/gets them realizes it's not useful to them)? If not, then it really didn't do much for the end user realistically speaking.
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Something like this isn't going to happen immediately. It takes time. Once would be thieves realize that stealing iPhones is nearly pointless due to them being unactivateable (made that word up), I am willing to bet theft will drop down drastically. Completely? Nope. But it will go down.
 
lordofthereef said:
Something like this isn't going to happen immediately. It takes time. Once would be thieves realize that stealing iPhones is nearly pointless due to them being unactivateable (made that word up), I am willing to bet theft will drop down drastically. Completely? Nope. But it will go down.
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Well, as I mentioned before to a similar reply, let's hope that's the case (and hopefully sooner than later). That said, while I'm hopeful, I'm ready for the possibility and perhaps even probability that not much will still change given that logic often fails to apply all that much to things of this nature unfortunately.
 
C DM said:
Well, as I mentioned before to a similar reply, let's hope that's the case (and hopefully sooner than later). That said, while I'm hopeful, I'm ready for the possibility and perhaps even probability that not much will still change given that logic often fails to apply all that much to things of this nature unfortunately.
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Hey, it worked with the automobile industry and vins on almost literally every part of the vehicle. Similar deterrents to car stereos, etc. This is one of the reasons why a bill has been proposed for a nationwide requirement of such theft deterrents (speaking of phones again here). History shows it's proven to work. But things will not change overnight.
 
lordofthereef said:
Hey, it worked with the automobile industry and vins on almost literally every part of the vehicle. Similar deterrents to car stereos, etc. This is one of the reasons why a bill has been proposed for a nationwide requirement of such theft deterrents. History says it's proven to work. But things will not change overnight.
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There are still plenty of car thefts going on, a lot of times just for joy rides. So it's possible theirs will still keep on stealing phones and just selling them onto others who don't know any better (and even over time there will be plenty of those) or using the phones to get other data off of them as plenty will still be unlocked. So, yes, it's logically a detergent, and perhaps will be an actual one, I guess it remains to be seen really to what degree it will be. In some sense any improvement is still an improvement.
 
C DM said:
There are still plenty of car thefts going on, a lot of times just for joy rides. So it's possible theirs will still keep on stealing phones and just selling them onto others who don't know any better (and even over time there will be plenty of those) or using the phones to get other data off of them as plenty will still be unlocked. So, yes, it's logically a detergent, and perhaps will be an actual one, I guess it remains to be seen really to what degree it will be. In some sense any improvement is still an improvement.
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I don't think you are understanding what I'm saying. Joyrides? Look at some actual numbers from the 70s or even 80s versus today. They are wayyyyy lower now than they ever were before. No, you won't stop theft 100%. But if you thwart it even 50% (and it has fallen more than that in terms of cars), it's a worthy (and relatively easy) addition to any OS.

People will buy stolen phones because they don't know better until we have a law set in olace for months (maybe years) informing them. It can be as simple as requiring this information be passed on at point of sale, through emails, etc.

I guarantee you this is a fantastic idea and, if
Implemented correctly, will drastically reduce the amount of mobile phone theft we see in just five years time. It is coming far too late if you ask me.
 
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Set up a meeting, go there with your friends and when the guy shows up kick his ass so much that he wont ever do that again:cool:
 
x-evil-x said:
Setup a meeting with him and bring a cop along. Waiting in a car of course.
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You people act like cops are there at our wishes. Our police would not do anything to help unless the guy was covered in donuts. Thousands of phone are lost and stolen every day and the police are not going to be much help!
 
If you can't get a cop to tag along, then bring a couple of friends, make sure you have guns, just in case. You're trying to get your phone back, it's not a drug deal, there's not gonna be a war happening.

9 times out of 10 the email is legit. Worst case scenario the thief is the person you're meeting, you kill the guy and end up with a self defence case, which is nothing. Go get your phone back.
 
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