I thought I would share my story of my friend, who works in the apple store, getting handed my wife's stolen iPhone for re-activation:
So my house was robbed while my wife and I slept back in may. It was a smash-n-grab type job, and my wife's purse and iPhone were stolen in the incident. Needless to say, it freaked us out, lots. We immediately called AT&T and had the iPhone's IMEI number blacklisted. We also provided the serial number of the iPhone to the police.
About a week later, a man brought my wife's iphone into the local Apple store (Salt Lake), with plans to have apple bypass the pass-code, and reactivate the phone for him. He walked up to the genius bar and handed the iPhone to an apple employee. That employee happened to be a friend of ours. It didn't take her long to figure out the iPhone belonged to us, since my wife had set one of our wedding pictures as the background image. She immediately called my wife, and my wife told her that we had just been robbed, and that the iPhone was stolen.
The first thing our concerned friend did is copy down the man's driver's license info, and then inform the man that the iPhone he was in possession of was stolen property, and could not be re-activated. Then, her superiors decided they would have no further involvement, and allowed the man to leave with our iPhone. Our friend then gave the man's personal info to her manager, and we were told that our detective would have to contact their security guy to get the man's info.
Our detective is actually way cool, and was more than willing to contact Apple, as he wanted any leads that might help him grab the person(s) responsible for the robbery of our home. At first Apple told our detective that no personal info on the man had been recorded, but after a little pressure, they did admit that our friend had indeed submitted the man's identity to her management, but if our detective wanted the man's identity, he would have to issue a subpoena to Apple's legal department. Frustrated by Apple's complete unwillingness to cooperate, our detective decided to push forward, and went to the DA for a subpoena, informing us that Apple had basically just stalled the investigation by several weeks, because the DA is extremely busy and it would take that long just to get the subpoena.
Well, the detective called this morning to let us know that Apple had sent him info finally: My info. They sent him MY freaken info. My name and number. Now almost 2 months, and a subpena later, their incompetent legal and security teams send the detective the plaintiff's info. Stupid, Stupid.
This goes to show that not even an amazing stroke of luck like having your stolen iphone handed to a friend working at the Apple store can get your precious device returned to you, and thanks to Apple, my case is now cold. Thanks, Apple.
And what if the man in possession of the iPhone was not involved in the robbery? I don't care. My friend told him it was stolen in a robbery, and he kept it anyway. If he bought a still password-protected-with some strange couple on the home screen-iPhone, and for a suspicious price off craigslist, then screw him, he should know better.
Now my detective is really annoyed, and I think it's a matter of principle now. Even though any hope getting our phone back or solving our robbery is long gone, our detective is frustrated enough with Apple, that he is going to take whatever measures are necessary.
I will post back with the final outcome.
Thanks to my friend at the Apple store who tried to help us.
So my house was robbed while my wife and I slept back in may. It was a smash-n-grab type job, and my wife's purse and iPhone were stolen in the incident. Needless to say, it freaked us out, lots. We immediately called AT&T and had the iPhone's IMEI number blacklisted. We also provided the serial number of the iPhone to the police.
About a week later, a man brought my wife's iphone into the local Apple store (Salt Lake), with plans to have apple bypass the pass-code, and reactivate the phone for him. He walked up to the genius bar and handed the iPhone to an apple employee. That employee happened to be a friend of ours. It didn't take her long to figure out the iPhone belonged to us, since my wife had set one of our wedding pictures as the background image. She immediately called my wife, and my wife told her that we had just been robbed, and that the iPhone was stolen.
The first thing our concerned friend did is copy down the man's driver's license info, and then inform the man that the iPhone he was in possession of was stolen property, and could not be re-activated. Then, her superiors decided they would have no further involvement, and allowed the man to leave with our iPhone. Our friend then gave the man's personal info to her manager, and we were told that our detective would have to contact their security guy to get the man's info.
Our detective is actually way cool, and was more than willing to contact Apple, as he wanted any leads that might help him grab the person(s) responsible for the robbery of our home. At first Apple told our detective that no personal info on the man had been recorded, but after a little pressure, they did admit that our friend had indeed submitted the man's identity to her management, but if our detective wanted the man's identity, he would have to issue a subpoena to Apple's legal department. Frustrated by Apple's complete unwillingness to cooperate, our detective decided to push forward, and went to the DA for a subpoena, informing us that Apple had basically just stalled the investigation by several weeks, because the DA is extremely busy and it would take that long just to get the subpoena.
Well, the detective called this morning to let us know that Apple had sent him info finally: My info. They sent him MY freaken info. My name and number. Now almost 2 months, and a subpena later, their incompetent legal and security teams send the detective the plaintiff's info. Stupid, Stupid.
This goes to show that not even an amazing stroke of luck like having your stolen iphone handed to a friend working at the Apple store can get your precious device returned to you, and thanks to Apple, my case is now cold. Thanks, Apple.
And what if the man in possession of the iPhone was not involved in the robbery? I don't care. My friend told him it was stolen in a robbery, and he kept it anyway. If he bought a still password-protected-with some strange couple on the home screen-iPhone, and for a suspicious price off craigslist, then screw him, he should know better.
Now my detective is really annoyed, and I think it's a matter of principle now. Even though any hope getting our phone back or solving our robbery is long gone, our detective is frustrated enough with Apple, that he is going to take whatever measures are necessary.
I will post back with the final outcome.
Thanks to my friend at the Apple store who tried to help us.
I hope the robbers and the guy who kept the phone get what's coming to them.
