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My sister just had a incident while traveling and lost her iPhone 5 at the airport. She thinks it must have fell out of her coat pocket when she was sitting and standing up. The rubberish case she had on must have silenced the sound of the phone dropping + the ambient noises at the airport so she did not notice it being dropped. She notice her phone being gone as soon as she boarded her flight. After reaching the destination airport, she called the origin airport lost and found with no success. She then used her daughters iphone to check her phone on "find my iphone" app. The phone was turned off.
Few hours later she checked her itunes account and noticed that the email address was changed to some elses. She called apple and AT&T and they blocked the phone. Then my sisters husband sent a polite email to the address letting the person know that they know who has the phone and to please return it to them. There has been no response since last night.

Could anyone give me suggestions to tell my sister what other steps she can do to get the phone back? I suggested to give the email address to the police and see if they can investigate it?
 
My sister just had a incident while traveling and lost her iPhone 5 at the airport. She thinks it must have fell out of her coat pocket when she was sitting and standing up. The rubberish case she had on must have silenced the sound of the phone dropping + the ambient noises at the airport so she did not notice it being dropped. She notice her phone being gone as soon as she boarded her flight. After reaching the destination airport, she called the origin airport lost and found with no success. She then used her daughters iphone to check her phone on "find my iphone" app. The phone was turned off.
Few hours later she checked her itunes account and noticed that the email address was changed to some elses. She called apple and AT&T and they blocked the phone. Then my sisters husband sent a polite email to the address letting the person know that they know who has the phone and to please return it to them. There has been no response since last night.

Could anyone give me suggestions to tell my sister what other steps she can do to get the phone back? I suggested to give the email address to the police and see if they can investigate it?

Give the email address to the police. Including the date and time it was dropped (airports have CCTV).

They probably won't bother looking, but if you're nice to them, you may be able to get them to look into it. If it was running iOS 7, remote wipe it, so that they enjoy their brick.
 
My sister just had a incident while traveling and lost her iPhone 5 at the airport. She thinks it must have fell out of her coat pocket when she was sitting and standing up. The rubberish case she had on must have silenced the sound of the phone dropping + the ambient noises at the airport so she did not notice it being dropped. She notice her phone being gone as soon as she boarded her flight. After reaching the destination airport, she called the origin airport lost and found with no success. She then used her daughters iphone to check her phone on "find my iphone" app. The phone was turned off.
Few hours later she checked her itunes account and noticed that the email address was changed to some elses. She called apple and AT&T and they blocked the phone. Then my sisters husband sent a polite email to the address letting the person know that they know who has the phone and to please return it to them. There has been no response since last night.

Could anyone give me suggestions to tell my sister what other steps she can do to get the phone back? I suggested to give the email address to the police and see if they can investigate it?

This unfortunate incident highlights why the phone should be protected along with the apple account. If my phone is lost, the worst i want to happen is the use of it for scrap parts, at least my digital life is somewhat protected.

- i have apple two phase authentication turned on
- restrictions enabled
- one minute timeout for password
- touch id enabled....very convenient
- control panel disabled in lock screen
- no email or imessage notifications in lock screen
- siri disabled in lock screen
- 10 attempt wipe
- strong password

I feel i made it as difficult as possible should a ner-do-well get possession of my phone. So yeah, it can be turned off and disassembled, but my accounts i feel are safe.
 
Could anyone give me suggestions to tell my sister what other steps she can do to get the phone back? I suggested to give the email address to the police and see if they can investigate it?

Unfortunately the police have better things to do in their job than investigate such a minor incident so don't count on it. Best suggestion is to be more careful next time.
 
Well, [stuff] happens is not a pass for making mistakes. There isn't a pass for that. But making a mistake didn't mean you are irresponsible. It means you goofed. People like to put things in black and white but the world is shades of grey. Just take responsibility but keep your perspective. There are a lot of lessons to learn even when things go right for you.

To Jay, telling people to ignore the airplane mode is not a responsible suggestion. I understand the FAA is considering it. But doubt you know more than they do. She follows reasonable directions from authority and you should too. I'm not going to tell her to just blow off instructions she doesn't agree with.

You sound like a very responsible and mature father. Your daughter is fortunate.
 
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I double check always when the plane is taxing. That's when I do my personal items check. The standard for men 3-pat down is in order plus the small travel bag in the over head bin (which I don't check since it never comes out anyway).

For those who don't know, 3-pat down for men is:

Pat down 1: Keys
Pat down 2: Wallet
Pat down 3: Phone

The order doesn't really matter as long as all of the above are met.
Totally agree and always do an Extra key check before I pull the door on my Flat. Have locked my self out previously and it was a two hour return trip across town to get spare key.
 
Well, my 30 days are up tomorrow. Still no sign of the phone. Hard lesson for everyone however I was able to soften the blow for her.

Since we bought it with an AMEX less than 90 days ago, I was able (with some initial resistance from AMEX) to get them to credit our AMEX bill the $199 we paid for the 32GB iPhone 5 on contract. That helped but still a long way from another one.

That is where my AT&T rep came in. He has always been very helpful. I explained the story and he noted that we had an iPad on our friends and family account without a contract. He was able to force an upgrade on it so that we could buy a 5c 32GB for the same $199. Now that was lucky.

I could have put the iPad on a contract anyway and received a $100 credit or discount on an iPad. But a $400 subsidy on an phone for a 2 year contract worth $240 to AT&T is a good deal. I also had to pay the $36 activation fee.

So my daughter gets a new 5c. To make up for the lost $100 credit I could have received we are forcing her to buy Applecare+ on the phone. And she is paying me the $36 activation fee as well.

Overall a good deal for her and me. But she knows next time it won't end nearly this well.
 
Good to hear you were able to find a replacement phone at a nominal cost.

So my daughter gets a new 5c. To make up for the lost $100 credit I could have received we are forcing her to buy Applecare+ on the phone. And she is paying me the $36 activation fee as well.

Keep in mind AC+ wouldn't have helped if it's lost or stolen, as in your OP.
 
I registered just to respond to this thread.

A year or so ago my wife ran into an apartment building to visit a friend. It was in the middle of winter so she hurried to get inside. About 10 seconds after she walked in, she checked her coat pocket to text her friend that she was there. It wasn't there. She ran outside and saw the imprint of the phone in the snow, and footprints. In literally less than 1 minute, someone saw her drop it, dashed over, grabbed it, and ran away. She'd had it for less than 2 weeks. She felt awful and was ready to go back to a flip phone, but of course I felt worse for her so paid for one at full retail.

Hard lesson, but now she is EXTREMELY careful with it. Your daughter will be more careful next time. ;)
 
Good to hear you were able to find a replacement phone at a nominal cost.







Keep in mind AC+ wouldn't have helped if it's lost or stolen, as in your OP.


That is true but having her buy it serves a couple of purposes:

1. Protects the phone if she does break it over the next 2 years.
2. Ensures she has to contribute something and not just get a replacement phone free of charge. She needs to know this cost us and I want her to learn to be much more careful.

----------

Thanks Ender. I sure hope so.
 
Well it still hasn't come out of airplane mode. I am actually taking that as kind of a good sign thinking that someone just put it in a pile and they are sending it to lost and found.

Obviously there are other interpretations but of someone didn't turn it in I would think they would probably mess with it a bit to try to get into it. They may have but they didn't turn off airplane mode to do it.

They likely have turned it off as the word is out about tracking iPhones and the people in the know would turn it off. If the person know nothing about the iPhone, they may not even know what airplane mode is.
 
Unfortunately the police have better things to do in their job than investigate such a minor incident so don't count on it. Best suggestion is to be more careful next time.

Yeah like standing around chit chatting eating donuts? or parked on a side of a road reading their Facebook comments? :) How careful can someone be when their phone falls out of their coat pocket?
 
I registered just to respond to this thread.

A year or so ago my wife ran into an apartment building to visit a friend. It was in the middle of winter so she hurried to get inside. About 10 seconds after she walked in, she checked her coat pocket to text her friend that she was there. It wasn't there. She ran outside and saw the imprint of the phone in the snow, and footprints. In literally less than 1 minute, someone saw her drop it, dashed over, grabbed it, and ran away. She'd had it for less than 2 weeks. She felt awful and was ready to go back to a flip phone, but of course I felt worse for her so paid for one at full retail.

Hard lesson, but now she is EXTREMELY careful with it. Your daughter will be more careful next time. ;)

Stuff happens, that why I have insurance. What shouldn't be able to happen is getting inside of your phone to compromise your digital life. My son lost his phone, 75 bucks and 2 days later we had a refurb in the mail. He didn't have find my iphone turned on, however, a few days later, miraculously the phone was found. I made him send the phone back to the insurance company after wiping it.

The lesson to be learned is protect your phone to the extent you feel comfortable, and be prepared in event of a loss.
 
Spoken like a true man.
I'm super paranoid in regards to my personal belongings. I'm the guy who hesitate to leaves his MacBook Pro in a backpack in his car while at the movie theater. People just don't understand.

Yeah that backpack is coming into the theater with the strap wrapped around my arm or leg until the movie is done. Haha
 
Yeah that backpack is coming into the theater with the strap wrapped around my arm or leg until the movie is done. Haha

You realize this thread is from 2013 and many of us fools just spent time reading it thinking it was current since you brought it back to front page.
 
Well there are several lessons to try to take from this:

1. Don't carry expensive things in an open top bag
2. Triple check your area and be paranoid about leaving things.
3. Even when your daughter says "I checked" and rolls her eyes, double check as the dad.
4. Learn to continue with life (Disney vacation in this case) and put things in perspective. That is for both of us.
5. And yes, [stuff] happens. Even if you try your best it happens sometimes anyway. That is life. No mistake: You are are still responsible for what happens due to your actions. And there are always consequences fair or not. But in life, [stuff] happens.

So if we don't here from Dallas, which we probably won't, then we will see if our travel insurance will cover some of it. Or the Amex j bought it with 70 days ago. Although I bet they cover purchase price not replacement.

She may end up with a used 4S instead of a new 5.

Credit card would cover it. I had my ipad broken screen and My master card reimbursed the cost of replacing a new screen from apple. it was within 90 days, barely 90 days.
 
Yeah, I was surprised to get the notification of a new post. Btw, phone never showed back up. I did get $200 back from AMEX and was able to use another upgrade to replace it. No more lost items by her. She is pretty careful now. Hope she stays that way.
 
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