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Stolen iPad
- Thread starter jrmines12
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I did the same thing - took it grocery shopping and left it in the cart when I was distracted by my kids getting out of the car when I just got them in with seatbelts on. Anyway, realized it 5 minutes down the road and went back but it was gone. I tried FindMyiPhone but it was powered off by then. In a panic I did a remote wipe which actually turns the power back on so I was able to get a lock in its location. I took a screenshot and gave it to the cops. Turns out the girl who was collecting the shopping carts found it and decided she'd keep it. The police recovered it 5 days later but she had totally shattered the screen. I took it the Apple Store expecting to pay $299 for a replacement but they gave me a free one! The "genius" said, "You didn't break it, right? You've had a crappy enough week" and I walked out very, very happy. Hopefully you'll have the same results I did! (Minus the broken screen...) FYI, it was a misdemeanor offense in PA due to the value not being high enough.
There's your guy. Where do you live, small town or no? Somebody could definitely identify him with that picture. Give it to the police and WalMart.
I didn't use photo editing software (in fact I'm not even sure it's possible to remove this effect that way, although i'm no whiz either). I write a lot of video processing software, and I've written a few 'thermal' effects like this. Knowing how it works it's very easy to reverse it, and I had the code to do it lying around, took a couple of minutes
Good luck catching the guy. Hopefully the supermarket staff will recognise him, or if not the police might be familiar with his face. Let us know how it goes!
I read a story about a woman that had left her camera in a restaurant. Went right back in, the table had been cleaned and no camera. Called the restaurant every day for a week to see if someone had turned the camera in to lost and found. She had a wifi sd card in the camera, one day pictures started appearing on her site. The thief was using the camera and had taken a picture of himself. She took the picture back to the restaurant and showed it to the manager. He was recognized instantly as one of their employees.
I will bet that armed with that photo, and the WalMart in-store video surveillance from around that time when it was lost, they can ID the person, especially if he bought something and didn't use cash.
Maybe the outside surveillance even caught him taking the iPad and can ID a vehicle as well.
Maybe the outside surveillance even caught him taking the iPad and can ID a vehicle as well.
Wow that picture cleaned up pretty good.
I'd take it to walmart and let them know and maybe make it into a flyer that says have you seen this guy, he has my iPad, put it on those boards they have in the lobby but you know what.
I'd go talk to the tv station and see if I can get them to run a story and comment how through technology you was able to take a picture of the guy who had it remotely on your iPad and that you're offering a small reward for it's return or that it could be return anonymously. Seems like every tv station has some peoples champion on them. This would be a good story
Somebody would rat the guy out for the reward if they saw it on tv or he would figure hey man the cops may recognize me and come ask me questions.
You never know but good luck.
I'd take it to walmart and let them know and maybe make it into a flyer that says have you seen this guy, he has my iPad, put it on those boards they have in the lobby but you know what.
I'd go talk to the tv station and see if I can get them to run a story and comment how through technology you was able to take a picture of the guy who had it remotely on your iPad and that you're offering a small reward for it's return or that it could be return anonymously. Seems like every tv station has some peoples champion on them. This would be a good story
Somebody would rat the guy out for the reward if they saw it on tv or he would figure hey man the cops may recognize me and come ask me questions.
You never know but good luck.
This is exactly what I'd do. Just make sure you say that no charges will be filed if its returned or else the person who has it would be reluctant to turn it in. This is probably your best bet. You could also send the photo and story to tech blogs like engadget, gizmodo, or even consumerist. I bet one of them pick it up.
OP should publicize this story as it would surely be picked up.
"iPad owner remotely takes picture of thief who stole[found?] iPad"
Viral.
Where'd the OP go anyway?
"iPad owner remotely takes picture of thief who stole[found?] iPad"
Viral.
Where'd the OP go anyway?
Richard Branson stole your iPad? I had no idea he was a WalMart shopper.
I pooped my pants
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/534.32 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)
Hey all, sorry I've been slow to post again, busy with the baby this morning and at work now. I'm waiting to hear back from a detective from the pd to see if they'll review the tapes and hopefully be able to track the guy with a credit card, assuming he used one at walmart. I should be hearing back from the insurance by tomorrow to find out wether or not it will be covered, doubtful but who knows. And I think I will try and take it to the local news and see what happens, definitely sending it to gizmodo as well. Thanks for the support and keeping up as this all progresses.
Hey all, sorry I've been slow to post again, busy with the baby this morning and at work now. I'm waiting to hear back from a detective from the pd to see if they'll review the tapes and hopefully be able to track the guy with a credit card, assuming he used one at walmart. I should be hearing back from the insurance by tomorrow to find out wether or not it will be covered, doubtful but who knows. And I think I will try and take it to the local news and see what happens, definitely sending it to gizmodo as well. Thanks for the support and keeping up as this all progresses.
Yup I'd make it clear all I want is the iPad but I'd sure be trying to get someone to pick my story up. Especially a local news channel. That picture is more than clear enough that someone will know that guy
Not that I'm in the boat raging on the OP for bringing his iPad, it does seem a bit pretentious to me for many reasons. But in any case, that's none of my concern. I hope you get it back OP. That really sucks
How is it pretentious to use your own iPad for stuff you find it useful for?
One thing to keep in mind: the guy in the photo might not be a thief. He might be some random guy the thief/'finder' showed the ipad to, or a guy who works at a pawn shop. He's most definitely somebody who needs finding though if you want that ipad back.
If you're going public with this, there's a bit more to the story that will appeal to the news people. You're in the US somewhere I suspect ('walmart' is called 'asda' here..) and I'm half-way round the world in England. This is a classic 'the power of the internet' story:
- You lost your ipad, but got this one barely-recognisable thermal photo of somebody who's got it, and posted it up on an internet forum.
- An iPad developer in England happened to see it and wanted to do something to help. He recently wrote an iPad app that includes a similar thermal effect, so he knows exactly how to quickly remove it.
- Within 20 minutes of posting the image, you have a clear photo of the guy. Now you just need some help to find the guy and track down your missing iPad!
If you're going public with this, there's a bit more to the story that will appeal to the news people. You're in the US somewhere I suspect ('walmart' is called 'asda' here..) and I'm half-way round the world in England. This is a classic 'the power of the internet' story:
- You lost your ipad, but got this one barely-recognisable thermal photo of somebody who's got it, and posted it up on an internet forum.
- An iPad developer in England happened to see it and wanted to do something to help. He recently wrote an iPad app that includes a similar thermal effect, so he knows exactly how to quickly remove it.
- Within 20 minutes of posting the image, you have a clear photo of the guy. Now you just need some help to find the guy and track down your missing iPad!
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This is incorrect. We are not allowed to do such a thing because of liability reasons.