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iPhone thief takes my iPhone in while my friend is working at Apple store

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Sky Blue said:
Yes, it was quite clear. How else would they recognise them?
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Then what was the point in your post? "Wow, you're phone got stolen, the thief took it to an Apple employee, who recognized your wedding photo on the phone? What are the chances of that happening? :hugefreakingrolleyes:"

Quite clearly making a sarcastic comment inferring that you don't believe the OP, if that wasn't your intention, your entire post makes no sense..

Ah well, I can't be bothered. It just amazes me how negative and quick to judge some people are.
 
Good grief that's asinine. My current carrier's (U.S. Cellular) policy is to have any phones that come up as stolen or whatever held there-they do NOT give it back to the person, and report anything like that.

I guess I'd much rather any company error on the side of privacy and caution-after all this could be a scam on the part of the detective to get info about the legitimate owner of the phone-but when YOU already reported it stolen they should at least hold the thing if it comes in, and be willing to check with you if it's okay to release info they have or whatever...I don't know...
 
1) OP just joins, has no other posts.
2) Very similar story posted like this.
3) The chances of your phone getting stolen and taken to an Apple Genius with a passcode where they could look up the persons account within Apple? That's like stealing a car then going to the dealer and saying my breaks are out, can you fix them? If you're a criminal, you never go back to the place or origin. You use it yourself, or just sell it on the streets.
In case you didn't know how Apple retail stores work, they look up your info either from you or via the serial number on the back of the phone. There is no reason they should start trying to use the phone before this process.
4) The chances of the crook taking to an Apple store that this guys friend works at, and it just so happens the friend is a not just a acquaintances, but a good friend?

+Look at this guys username.

Get real people.
 
Sky Blue said:
It amazes me how gullible people are.
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It amazes he how jaded people are.

Apple would never behave like this?

Or nobody has a friend that works at the apple store?

When you have a friend that works at the only apple store in town, the odds of them getting handed your phone are higher than you think.

I'm sorry I posted. Thanks for the warm welcome.
 
nickspohn said:
3) The chances of your phone getting stolen and taken to an Apple Genius with a passcode where they could look up the persons account within Apple? That's like stealing a car then going to the dealer and saying my breaks are out, can you fix them? If you're a criminal, you never go back to the place or origin. You use it yourself, or just sell it on the streets.
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To be fair, assuming that this story is true, we have no idea who this guy who took the phone to Apple is. He might be the robber. Or he might be some poor sap who purchased the phone off the robber. (Which if that's the case, then getting his info from Apple won't advance the legal case at all.)
 
Sky Blue said:
It amazes me how gullible people are.
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Why would assuming this is true make anyone gullible? It's perfectly plausible, and threads dealing with this type of issue are common in cell phone forums. Like I said, the response from my carrier is to take the phone from them and report any info they can.
 
DeaconGraves said:
To be fair, assuming that this story is true, we have no idea who this guy who took the phone to Apple is. He might be the robber. Or he might be some poor sap who purchased the phone off the robber. (Which if that's the case, then getting his info from Apple won't advance the legal case at all.)
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I don't care. If he kept it, then he has no conscience, and if he re-sold it, knowing it's stolen, he's a criminal.
 
nervouschimp, I love what you've done here. You've successfully managed to break a lot of people in this community away from their usual traits.

Those are: Agree with everything Apple does and be nice to everyone who ever comes here. You've forced people into making a choice between the two and this is a very interesting topic indeed.

I'm sorry to hear about your robbery.
 
nervouschimp said:
I don't care. If he kept it, then he has no conscience, and if he re-sold it, knowing it's stolen, he's a criminal.
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Wasn't arguing with that man. I was just saying that the guy who brought to the store might NOT be a criminal. There is no crime in being in possession of a stolen object without knowledge that it is stolen.
 
brock2621 said:
I dugg this because ppl should know how Apple handles these things... Everybody is so afraid of being sued that no justice is ever done.
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1) Buried as inaccurate.
2) It isn't good for the forums if you link directly to the thread. (That's if it gets popular, but there is a 9/10 chance it won't.
 
True or not I think your biggest gripe should be with your friend… this "friend" had all the details and let it all go? Even though as an Apple employee he/she would have known that the Apple store wouldn't do anything to help? What? The Store manager held a gun to his/her head and made them reveal the details and destroy the name?

If I were a "friend" I would at least have kept a copy of the name and details of the purported thief. At very least remembered it… ;)
Wouldn't you?

That is what I find really odd…
 
Jaded is exactly the word. What a bunch of nasty people have commented in this thread, pulling everything apart, trying to find a weak point, like some first year philosophy student! There's really no debate about validity to be found here. I guess it comes with the "rumours" territory... Not really sure why people are having such a hard time believing you got robbed - Apple equipment isn't at all desirable to a thief!

Anyway, I imagine you posted in here thinking that there would be a bit of a community of sympathetic listeners. Looks like you'll have to post somewhere else!
 
Uh, i'd obviously feel sorry for someone if i knew this actually happened. Read what i said with the numbers above. You can't trust everything on the internet, and it's stuff exactly like this that causes that.

The cigarette buts.. how did you know it was from the thief? I mean, if they showed up right after the incident then yes, but again, a thief waiting in a shed of yours? Why don't you have your shed locked? If it's big enough where he can go in, the shed must be pretty decent in size and stores some stuff in it. Why didn't he steal anything in there too?

Many break ins can be prevented. Yes there are a lot of cases where the home owner can't help it at all, but what puzzles me is that he had complete access to the shed.

Also, when your friend wrote down the license number, the cops could have gotten all the information on him. His name, address, etc. Since it was a physical break in, the cops would take this info.
 
BlackMax said:
Many corporations require a subpoena before they hand over this type of information to protect themselves against lawsuits. I'm not saying this story happened or didn't happen, but the idea of a corporation requiring a court ordered subpoena before they hand over a private citizen's personal information is not so far fetched.
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This is exactly the case and should have been the case with Apple. Sorry but saying Apple is wrong for requesting a subpoena is silly.
However, being in a position daily if I encountered what this guy's friend did I would have probably called the police on the spot. This is where I do not understand if this is Apple policy not to or a simple error.
 
Do you not get it? Your post doesn't add up. If there was some clear proof that this just oddly happened, i'd be fine. You have no credibility, so i cannot trust you. Agree with me that it is extremely suspicious for someone to join an iPhone forum, and your first post happens to be about this. If this was coming from someone who has posted a little bit and been registered for a few weeks, then i could believe it.

How come you didn't post this when "your friend at the apple store" randomly got your wifes iPhone? And THEN she gives it back to him...?

I'm just going to report this thread so it gets locked.
 
This story kind of reminds me of a time I almost lost my job..

I work at a Best Buy, and I use to keep a backpack with me when I would go to work to store clothing/personal items in. I would always put it in the employee breakroom (where..you know..only EMPLOYEES can get into) and go about my day. Well the store had issued a policy that ALL employees that were not Supervisors or Managers could no longer carry cell phones with them on the sales floor. Since I worked in the wireless cell-phone/mp3 department at the time, i was allowed to carry my iPhone as a demo for customers who were interested in the Ipod Touch.
My girlfriend at the time however, would always put her iphone (that i purchased for her) in my bag. Well on day when I got off from work I go to check my bag and get her phone when sure enough, it was GONE!! FIVE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FOUR DAMN DOLLARS OF MY HARD-EARNED CASH STOLEN OUT OF THE EMPLOYEE BREAKROOM!!!! Not only that, but they got me for my 30gb Zune ($267.49 at the time) AND my PSP ($188.99 at the time)

Needless to say I totally FLIPPED!! I was EXTREMELY angry not just that my things had been stolen ut by an EMPLOYEE (Note, I'd been working at that particular store for over 2 years and was on extremely good terms with everyone who worked there and had never had any personal probems with anyone)

Worse yet, it happened over our Tax free weekend, which for anyone working retail in the state of Georgia can attest, is a very busy and tiresome four days. I had just come off of working a double shift and all of mythings are gone. ..:(:(

This is the ONLY time in recent memory that I can remember just totally blacking out and cursing out every single person who was in earshot. My GM was trying to calm me down and i yelled in his face and told him I quit and I took off my Best Buy shirt and threw it on the floor in front of customers and everyone. I was completely done, I couldn't understand how ANYONE whom i WORKED with could laugh, joke, and be a co-worker with me and then STEAL from me:mad::mad:

The ONLY reason i wasn't done and fired then and there was because my direct Supervisor and Manager pleaded with the GM on my behalf after i stormed out of the store. Once I calmed down and apologized to the GM face to face he was very understanding of how hurt I was.

And to this day the lesson that i learned was, never trust your co-workers no matter HOW long you've worked with them..
 
jessica. said:
However, being in a position daily if I encountered what this guy's friend did I would have probably called the police on the spot. This is where I do not understand if this is Apple policy not to or a simple error.
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I'm kind of wondering if that may be tied into the policy as well.

As I've mentioned in a few of my other posts we have no idea who the person who brought the phone in is. Might be the thief, might be some guy who found a good deal on craigslist/ebay.

Imagine you're the person in scenario b. A guy who found a good deal on craigslist for the phone and bought it, only to find the phone bricked due to passcode and deactivation. You take it to the store and its revealed as stolen. If Apple just immediately turned you over to the police, it'd be pretty awful, especially since you yourself had done nothing wrong. I think Apple is doing the smart thing by protecting its "customers" and their privacy until they are legally obligated to do otherwise (that Apple turned over the wrong information in the end does suck though, but I would think the Subpeona would still hold until the correct information is obtained).

That being said, as others had mentioned, if I had my friend at the Apple store, I would want him to contact me with all the information before he gave it over to Apple. Granted, maybe he wasn't aware of the robbery? In which case I probably wouldn't be thinking quickly enough to keep a copy for myself.
 
I can understand why they did this. Its for protection of personal information ... you have to draw the line somewhere.
 
My friend who is a Microsoft employee and I were admiring my Iphone one day. He told me it was better than anything that microsoft made and wanted to go buy one. So we went down to the apple store. Everything went fine until the guy next to us asked the apple employee to activate the 3G he had stolen. The employee told him no problem. My Microsoft friend was incredulous. "Microsoft would never let that happen!" He became more and more agitated. He asked the guy if he had really stolen the iphone and the dude said yes. On hearing that he worked at microsoft, the employee helping us started scratching his head and called his manager. The transaction was complete and we started to leave. The manager stopped us and told us that microsoft employees were not eligible for the discount and told my friend that he needed to pay $300 more before we could leave the store. My friend told him to stick it and we turned to leave. Out of nowhere this huge guy in a football jersey tackled my friend, braking his arm. The football guy stood over my friend as he started having seizures and started yelling "that's what we think about microsoft around here!"

We went to the police to complain but the cop was using a vista computer to take his statement, and the damn thing crashed in the middle of it. The cop threw his hands up and said that without a statement he couldn't do anything. We told him we would write it out by hand but he said he couldn't do anything because the courts would only issue warrents based on information inputted into microsoft software. What a day.
 
nickspohn said:
Why did you have a Zune and a PSP in your bag when you went to work?
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Or at all? LOL

This thread has become *very* entertaining.
 

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See at least Stanley knows when to cross the line. :eek:


Please tell me i'm being too critical, because there is no way in hell that happened...
 
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