Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone 5 stolen, got an email from finder

Thanks for sharing your story! I always worry in a public place that someone is going to snatch my iPhone 5s out of my hand. I usually grip it tightly and have my index finger on top.

I hope that the next iPhone has a bigger screen, although small form factor, like the 5/5s.
 
To revive an old thread: I ended up on the other end of a similar situation. Over a month ago I was contacted by "a friend of a friend of a friend" and asked to contact the owner of a recovered iPhone 5S. The story I was presented was that an iPhone was found on a beach in Cuba :cool: and brought back to Russia. Now they wanted to contact the owner to see if perhaps they could unlock it for a modest fee, as to save themselves a trouble of shipping it back to U.S. I did, and after some consideration, the owner wanted the phone back. However, a person who contacted me was not happy with this turn of events and said they'll use it for parts instead. I felt really bad for the whole thing and after some communication with the owner and a swindler decided to be a good samaritan and save the phone and its content (32 GB version, full of pictures from vacation, according to the owner) by paying $200 ransom so I could take the matter into my hands entirely.

Now, naturally I expected the owner to arrange the shipping. However, he insists I arrange and pay for the shipping myself and he will reimburse once he has a working phone in his hands. Naturally, I'm a bit hesitant to "invest" another $100 into this venture without any guarantee from the owner other than his word (he claims to be a police officer and apparently thinks it is enough). His emails often couple of weeks apart, and he wrote me just now again, wondering whether I have cannibalized the phone yet. Still wants me to pay the shipping.

What would you do? Any advice is appreciated.
 
Tim0 said:
To revive an old thread: I ended up on the other end of a similar situation. Over a month ago I was contacted by "a friend of a friend of a friend" and asked to contact the owner of a recovered iPhone 5S. The story I was presented was that an iPhone was found on a beach in Cuba :cool: and brought back to Russia. Now they wanted to contact the owner to see if perhaps they could unlock it for a modest fee, as to save themselves a trouble of shipping it back to U.S. I did, and after some consideration, the owner wanted the phone back. However, a person who contacted me was not happy with this turn of events and said they'll use it for parts instead. I felt really bad for the whole thing and after some communication with the owner and a swindler decided to be a good samaritan and save the phone and its content (32 GB version, full of pictures from vacation, according to the owner) by paying $200 ransom so I could take the matter into my hands entirely.

Now, naturally I expected the owner to arrange the shipping. However, he insists I arrange and pay for the shipping myself and he will reimburse once he has a working phone in his hands. Naturally, I'm a bit hesitant to "invest" another $100 into this venture without any guarantee from the owner other than his word (he claims to be a police officer and apparently thinks it is enough). His emails often couple of weeks apart, and he wrote me just now again, wondering whether I have cannibalized the phone yet. Still wants me to pay the shipping.

What would you do? Any advice is appreciated.
Click to expand...

You start a new thread and ask your question. ;) Oh and don't pay. F that crap.
 
Tim0 said:
To revive an old thread: I ended up on the other end of a similar situation. Over a month ago I was contacted by "a friend of a friend of a friend" and asked to contact the owner of a recovered iPhone 5S. The story I was presented was that an iPhone was found on a beach in Cuba :cool: and brought back to Russia. Now they wanted to contact the owner to see if perhaps they could unlock it for a modest fee, as to save themselves a trouble of shipping it back to U.S. I did, and after some consideration, the owner wanted the phone back. However, a person who contacted me was not happy with this turn of events and said they'll use it for parts instead. I felt really bad for the whole thing and after some communication with the owner and a swindler decided to be a good samaritan and save the phone and its content (32 GB version, full of pictures from vacation, according to the owner) by paying $200 ransom so I could take the matter into my hands entirely.

Now, naturally I expected the owner to arrange the shipping. However, he insists I arrange and pay for the shipping myself and he will reimburse once he has a working phone in his hands. Naturally, I'm a bit hesitant to "invest" another $100 into this venture without any guarantee from the owner other than his word (he claims to be a police officer and apparently thinks it is enough). His emails often couple of weeks apart, and he wrote me just now again, wondering whether I have cannibalized the phone yet. Still wants me to pay the shipping.

What would you do? Any advice is appreciated.
Click to expand...
you are too kind already, do not pay for shipping, ask him to pay for the fee at least 50% in advance then when the phone gets back he can clear the 50% rest
 
Simple solution:

If the original owner won't pay to ship the phone, ignore him.

If he wants proof you have the phone, have him unlock it and send him photos from it.

There has to be SOME trust on his end, and with all that you've done already, if he's unwilling to even pay SHIPPING, the odds of you getting nothing in return go up exponentially. Have him send you a pre-paid label... but have HIM do it. Don't spend another penny "helping"...

I'd personally give him 30 days to arrange shipping (or he can come pick it up lol...), or I'd sell it for parts. You already did the right thing. Any reasonable person would pay shipping (and any NICE person would offer a reward (I have a $100 reward offer on my iCaughtYou lockscreen message)).

Stop wasting your time and let him know it's either your way or the parts way. Again, you already tried to be nice, no guilt needed at this point.

There has to be SOME sacrifice on their end
 
I7guy said:
Huh what? It's against the law to call 911 in non emergencies.
Click to expand...

No it's not. I called 911 last week because some drunk guy was walking down my sidewalk. It wasn't an emergency, but I didn't want him walking into traffic so they sent a cop car. No big deal.
 
Thank you all for your replies. Well, I've tried some of these suggestions in our earlier communications already, such as 50% pre-pay and uploading the pix… Apparently, the owner does not want to unlock the phone for privacy reasons (and also because he wants to be sure I won't just get off with the usable phone, I guess). To me, the biggest issue is not even whether he'll reimburse my expenses when he has a phone, but that the phone won't get past Russian border - and then I loose whole amount. While it is quite common that people here order electronics to be shipped into Russia, shipping a locked device out of Russia is, well, unusual. Though the DHL people said they'll do it - not sure what the deal is between the DHL and the customs.

Regarding the reward, again, he would now have to cover $200 ransom plus $100 shipping - that's 40% of the price for a 6-month-old device here, not a lot of space for additional reward, so I'm not even considering…

Hope we'll come to the agreeable solution somehow.
 
Tim0 said:
Thank you all for your replies. Well, I've tried some of these suggestions in our earlier communications already, such as 50% pre-pay and uploading the pix… Apparently, the owner does not want to unlock the phone for privacy reasons (and also because he wants to be sure I won't just get off with the usable phone, I guess). To me, the biggest issue is not even whether he'll reimburse my expenses when he has a phone, but that the phone won't get past Russian border - and then I loose whole amount. While it is quite common that people here order electronics to be shipped into Russia, shipping a locked device out of Russia is, well, unusual. Though the DHL people said they'll do it - not sure what the deal is between the DHL and the customs.

Regarding the reward, again, he would now have to cover $200 ransom plus $100 shipping - that's 40% of the price for a 6-month-old device here, not a lot of space for additional reward, so I'm not even considering…

Hope we'll come to the agreeable solution somehow.
Click to expand...

Since the owner won't unlock the phone, take a picture of the actual phone with the iCloud activation screen open or take a picture of the serial number on the SIM tray.
 
It seems at least a bit odd that someone that barely knows someone else (friend of a friend of a friend, etc.) would contact that someone to get them to arrange something on their behalf. It seems at least a bit more strange that then someone would actually be so much of a good samaritan to spend $200 of their own money for someone else. Now, it's good that good samaritans exist, but even those would hardly justify that much money on something they aren't involved in in any way (on top of dealing with additional unnecessary hassle and time and effort of then haggling with the owner over shipping and all that). The issue at hand seems somewhat unrelated to that, and I'm not really trying to say there's something wrong or something like that, but most would have to admit at the very least this seems like an extremely unusual and maybe even somewhat strange situation.
 
KoolAid-Drink said:
Update - I called the police department again, asked to be transferred to the detective department, as they opened 11:30pm. Explained I was transferred earlier, but got disconnected as there was nobody there, so the dispatcher transferred me to 911. Of course, I felt this was unnecessary, so I explained to the 911 dispatcher that I was just trying to reach a detective who could check to see if the assigned detective was there.

Once finally transferred, I found out that my detective was expected in tonight, but didn't show up, so the next time he was going to be in the office was Tuesday night! Way too far away. So, I asked if they could assign someone else to the case (especially as I got such an email saying they had my stolen device!), and he said certain detectives handles certain cases. Translation: nothing I can do for you.

I was also told not to respond to the email, and instead, just to save it.

Ugh! What should I do next?
Click to expand...

Don't you see? The detective is the THEIF! It all makes sense now.
 
Imaginator said:
No it's not. I called 911 last week because some drunk guy was walking down my sidewalk. It wasn't an emergency, but I didn't want him walking into traffic so they sent a cop car. No big deal.
Click to expand...

I would classify that as an emergency because the person could get hurt or worse.

A non-emergency would be to call 911 when your order at burger king is not coming out as fast as you would want.
 
I7guy said:
Huh what? It's against the law to call 911 in non emergencies. They are not a referral service. It's one thing to get transferred there, it's another to take up the time of an operator who could be handling an emergency.
Click to expand...

What law? I know some that didn't have the time to look up the police # and just called 911. They have plenty of operators to handle the calls.
 
If this ever happens I'm gonna skip local law enforcement and just hire some experienced mercenaries, we'll set up an exchange from a distance to ensure the iPhone is indeed alive and safe, have a sniper or two covering the kidnapper and one guy next to me armed to the teeth....oh wait this isn't a kidnapping Hollywood movie :D :D

Don't you see? The detective is the THEIF! It all makes sense now.
Click to expand...
Ahahahahaha IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW, he didn't come in for work, not answering calls! ITS A TRAP. I'd call the US Attorney's office I think we got a case of corruption here :D :D

----------
KillaMac said:
What law? I know some that didn't have the time to look up the police # and just called 911. They have plenty of operators to handle the calls.
Click to expand...

I think they would charge you the cost of any emergency services like SWAT, hours spent by detectives, gas, etc. but that would be if you made prank phone calls....calling 911 for a non-emergency is common...my friend used to be an operator and half the fricken calls were people trying to order Pizza or something stupid. Even if it were a law not every law that is broken results in some cop wanting to go through the BS paperwork of arresting and booking you, coupled with the fact that some Assistant District Attorney probably doesn't give a crap about someone confused about the phone numbers when he/she has in all likely some other serious things to deal with like Robbery/Homicide, Rape and Assaults, whatever. Seriously just because you CAN doesn't mean you should. Then again I don't live in California, just New York :O
 
C DM said:
It seems at least a bit odd that someone that barely knows someone else (friend of a friend of a friend, etc.) would contact that someone to get them to arrange something on their behalf. It seems at least a bit more strange that then someone would actually be so much of a good samaritan to spend $200 of their own money for someone else. Now, it's good that good samaritans exist, but even those would hardly justify that much money on something they aren't involved in in any way (on top of dealing with additional unnecessary hassle and time and effort of then haggling with the owner over shipping and all that). The issue at hand seems somewhat unrelated to that, and I'm not really trying to say there's something wrong or something like that, but most would have to admit at the very least this seems like an extremely unusual and maybe even somewhat strange situation.
Click to expand...

C DM, there aren't many fluent English speakers in where I live, so people know me as a translator/interpreter, and I do get requests to resolve issues over the phone every now and then. The reason I got involved so deeply was that I did not want my reputation to be compromised, as it is worth a bit more than $200. The option of returning the phone to the owner was discussed even before I made contact, and they said they'll do it, turned out they lied in this and lied about Cuba as well - I suppose they just bought the phone from a thief via eBay and such. As for the rest, naturally I did not expect to haggle with the owner or his reluctance to share the risks.
 
PsstGreek said:
First, I wouldn't pay some scumbag to get my phone bag. I would wait until the detective gets back in touch with you and go from there.
Click to expand...

Is the phone insured for theft? Does it contain irreplaceable data, or could you just replace it with an identical refurbished phone and restore a backup?

Anyway, it seems that "Find my iPhone" worked as intended: Nobody but the legitimate user is able to use it. So you decide whether you'd rather have your principles, or rather have your phone. Obviously if I decided to meet then another person would be nearby making a video recording of everything, which would be passed to the police. And the price I'd pay would be rather low, representing the rather low value of the phone to the thief.
 
Poly said:
I just had a good read here :)
On page 3 i already thought OP got killed due to the lack of his posts :D

Happy end! :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, real life drama unfolding. Interesting read.

BUT, for all you "alternate-ending" fans out there, how do we know the happy ending wasn't concocted and posted by... the dastardly thief? After he tricked the OP into disclosing his passcode - which ultimately provided access to his MR account.

You know, just to throw us all off the scent. It is the internet, after all ;)
 
At this point it's all just personal preference. Were it me, I'd be done with him, as you've already gone above and beyond and have nothing to feel guilty about if he won't risk a bit on his end. It is what it is.

The irony is that in setting up the system this way, Apple has made extortion an option (which in many ways is MORE heartwrenching and dangerous than just living with the fact that the device is gone forever). It used to be, once you lost an iPhone, you may as well forget it and move on. Now there's the glimmer of hope you could get your precious (photo's, texts, whatever you didn't back up) back, and that opens you up to be blackmailed.

COD would be the only other thought. Escrow seems a bit extreme, but could work too.

Time to just move on. You did your good deed. He clearly isn't willing to even work with you, so no sense in risking MORE of your money.
 
I only read about half of the thread, but I thought I would briefly share my story. My daughter's 5C was stolen from her gym bag while she was at swim practice. We enabled Lost Mode as soon as we realized it was gone (about 2 hours later), and we put a short message on the phone with our contact number. It was already offline when we enabled Lost Mode, so we had no idea where it was. Nothing happened until a week later when we got a text from a kid who said he bought it from someone off Craigslist and couldn't activate it. I'm almost certain the kid was the one that really stole it, but we'll never know for sure. Anyway, I offered to buy it back from him. We agreed on a price, met at a public place, and did the deal. The kid couldn't have been a day over 16 years old.

Anyway, to each their own, but I'm glad I went ahead and bought it back. Much less hassle in the end.

Good luck to anyone else that finds themselves in a similar situation.
 
Personally, it sounds to me as if the thief sold the phone to the guy who emailed you. Sounds to me like the emailer is not a thief but was rather screwed on Craigslist by the actual theif due to activation lock.
 
I would simply respond to the email and say: ...your balls are showing.


Just kidding..just wait for the detective.
 
u can get any cop to go with you don't have to be that dt when someone had stole my friend and i found it on craigslist the dept asked someone else to go and he contacted the guy pretended to buy the phone from him and ended up getting my phone back.
 
Enjoyed reading this old thread.

Pleased for the OP and fair play to the police on this occasion for setting up the "sting" to have it recovered.

Good news all round.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back