Stolen iPhone

[iceterminal]

Its gone. So time to move forward. Learn from your mistake/experience.

Does erase my iphone still work while having location services off? Not sure.
Hope that minor battery save was worth it. I've always had mine on, just charge my phone nightly and lasts all day with my usage. Your mileage may vary.

Make sure you contact your carrier and have your IMEI blacklisted. F' those thieves. Don't make it easy for them.

Best of luck to you in your new endeavors.

 

[macnewbbie]

I don't have much hope to get it back now. I did block the phone in all carriers, they wont have their job easy.
I did learn from it and to be honest i had them off at the time because of the battery and because i wasn't in any scenario that i could lose it or have it stolen, but i guess i was wrong.
About the "wipe iphone", i think it doesn't need location services on, only being connected to the internet with the icloud account on the phone - at least thats what i understood from it.

I will have to get a new phone(all i need is an expense like this/not), but im not sure if i will go for an iphone again, they are more expensive but i really liked iOS and i was used to it and to its apps and how they work.
So im kinda undecided between an htc one x (the quad core version) or an iphone 5, only because the htc does have good specs and is 130$ cheaper,so its a difference.

 

[macnewbbie]

Im digging up this thread because a year and half later im still angry about this and also because i tried out the activation lock checker from Apple and was wondering something.

I didn't manage to recover my iphone or have any "leads" as to where it is. So its just a police report and i blacklisted the imei on all carriers in my country.

When my phone got stolen, it was on iOS6 because thats what was avalaible at the time.
I read now that Apple implemented some more security measure with ios8(and ios7)to make the phone unsable unless you enter Apple ID (activation lock) and that now you can check if that is activated using the imei on Apple's website.

So, i just tried it out and it says that is active/on. So basically, even though i blacklisted the phone imei(so it can use a sim card in my country), this means that the thief has the phone on and updated it, probably to ios8?

This doesn't really bring nothing new to recover the phone, but i was just curious. It still makes me angry that the police can't really trace or do something about it even after proof of ownership and also that Apple doesn't have something like a blacklist for these stolen iphones

 

[sheldomacrumors]

I wouldn't canel anything, when I restore my iPhone in iTunes it links up to say it's been used on my iCloud account without the password I can not progress further. Same with DFU mode restore. Report it where you can and keep an eye on your account to see it the device emerges online. This would be a total nightmare and can only imagine what it feels like. I hope you eventually get your iDevice back!

Scratch that didn't realise the thread was a year old.

 

[macnewbbie]

Still, thanks for the advice and it might help somebody else!

I never actually removed the iphone from my icloud account in hopes that it would show up or the order to erase the content would go through, but it never did. Unfortunately, the person that got it knew how to work around it and restore it.

But trying out the activation lock checker it says that its active, so this means that the thief or the person he/she sold it to updated the phone to ios7 and activated this.
Could this still be activated for a iphone that doesn't connect to a carrier? Because now im thinking that either some blacklist order on the carriers didn't go through or the phone is out of the country

 

[sheldomacrumors]

As you stated prior to the initial update of confirming your iCloud password there is nothing that can be done as usually carrier wise the SIM card it's the blacklisted item not the device. Just out of curiosity do you own a iPhone now?

 

[macnewbbie]

No, that was the last(and first) iphone i had. I wanted an iphone ever since the 1st gen and I got the ip4 because i got a great discount from my carrier at the time since there were new iphones coming out in a few weeks. I found a great promotion/discount for a s3 a month after the ip4 was stolen and went for it. I still miss iOS as a phone OS and the iphone, but im used to android now.

When i went to blacklist the phone at the carriers i had to give my receipt, imei of the phone and the police report. What i was told was that wouldn't allow any sim from that network to use the phone, so i went to all of them to do that. But since the phone was updated and i don't know if this new locking system (https://icloud.com/activationlock) on the iphone requires carrier connectivity, i was thinking that the phone was either taken out of the country, a blacklist order didn't went through with one of the carriers, or they are just using it like pretty much an ipod touch (if it the activation lock feature doesn't indeed require a sim card)

 

[Godmode]

Theyll need your apple before they can restore

 

[deviant]

Yes it is. My phone is always in my pocket. I'm honestly curious how cell phones get stolen these days outside of sheer carelessness or getting mugged.

There's always a first time in everything. Yours will come too, don't worry.

 

[macnewbbie]

Theyll need your apple before they can restore

The thing is that at the time on ios6 the feature wasn't available, so they probably restored it on the computer and set up with their apple id and have making the updates since.
I just didn't know if this feature on the the iphone really required an actual sim card to be inserted and working or not. But probably not since it works on ipads also (doesnt mention ipods though), but i did fill all the paperwork in my country carriers to block the use of sim, so its either out of the country, using some kinda unknown carrier or maybe a really recent and not very known one or a blacklist order didn't go through(i doubt this a bit since i sign everything and it all seemed to be done in each carrier properly).

This doesn't bring much news or ways to recover it, but it just makes me mad and reminds me that a thief is still enjoying the phone and using it.

 

[Brian Y]

It's probably not in the country. Until we get international blacklisting, blacklisting is relatively pointless unfortunately.

 

[macnewbbie]

I still don't get why there isn't one or something similar. Someone could create a process where people would sign up when they first get a phone and register to prove ownership.I get it would probably have to be a complex process, but it would be so useful.
I actually used to think that Apple would have something like this and a whole process where it would at least block the phone from receiving updates and connect to their servers. But at least is good to see they are implementing some new features on ios to prevent this (would be more useful back then to me)

 

[TigerMSTR]

I didn't had insurance on it They are so expensive and the price i had would pay for insurance so far would probably be more than a new phone but it would be very useful to have now, i admit that.
Im hoping the thief didn't made a restore yet and im hopping the person that found isn't familiar with iphones, itunes and everything.

If you have home or rental insurance, it very likely would cover the theft of your device, even if it happened outside of your home.

 

[danilko1]

It seems the phone was less stolen, and more likely found and not returned.

Scummy thing to do, turn it off in the middle of your calling it.

Sorry for your loss.

It would be interesting if you could send it a delete message now. I think, the person who has it, doesn't even know it was stollen, unless whoever picked it up, is still using it. Then it might be just around the corner from you.

 

[Inframan]

Same thing happened to me last year, my iPad mini was stolen out of my wife's purse, i had find my iPhone turned off to save battery and i never saw the iPad again. I filed a police report with the North Hollywood Police Department, they said they would get back to me in 2 weeks, that was over a year ago, never heard from them.

 

[CEmajr]

Hello.
Unfortunately, my iphone got stolen this week. I had location services turned off to save battery so i can't track it (mistake i won't make ever again on a phone with such services). The theifs turned off the phone and so from i cloud i turned on the option to "erase iphone" but that only take effect when they connect it to the internet.

But right now im wondering if its not a mistake to activate the "erase iphone" option because it will delete my accounts also, right? So there is then no change the phone will show up on icloud in case they just connect it to the internet or turn on the location services (i know, im probably dreaming on this one)?
What do you guys think i should do? Should i remove the "erase my iphone" order or just leave it? I already locked it with the networks so its not really usable with a card, but my content is probably still be there and I really wanted to remove it.

Thanks in advance

Don't remove it from your iCloud list. That would play right into the hands of the thief. With iCloud's Find My iPhone still active, even if they wipe the phone, once they turn it on and try to activate it again a message will pop up asking for your iCloud password. This is the 'Activation Lock' feature that makes iPhones useless to thieves. The only way they would be able to access your info is if they knew your iCloud password. So in other words the thief just stole a brick that's only worth its value in parts.

EDIT: Nevermind, just reread the post and realized you turned Find My iPhone off. May as well go ahead and remote wipe it or whatever you want. But the thief has probably already wiped it and restored as new anyway. Maybe even resold it already.

 

[617aircav]

I still don't get why there isn't one or something similar. Someone could create a process where people would sign up when they first get a phone and register to prove ownership.I get it would probably have to be a complex process, but it would be so useful.

I actually used to think that Apple would have something like this and a whole process where it would at least block the phone from receiving updates and connect to their servers. But at least is good to see they are implementing some new features on ios to prevent this (would be more useful back then to me)

They have find my iphone. If people choose to turn it off there is nothing anyone else can do.

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It's probably not in the country. Until we get international blacklisting, blacklisting is relatively pointless unfortunately.

It's not pointless.

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Im digging up this thread because a year and half later im still angry about this and also because i tried out the activation lock checker from Apple and was wondering something.

I didn't manage to recover my iphone or have any "leads" as to where it is. So its just a police report and i blacklisted the imei on all carriers in my country.

When my phone got stolen, it was on iOS6 because thats what was avalaible at the time.
I read now that Apple implemented some more security measure with ios8(and ios7)to make the phone unsable unless you enter Apple ID (activation lock) and that now you can check if that is activated using the imei on Apple's website.

So, i just tried it out and it says that is active/on. So basically, even though i blacklisted the phone imei(so it can use a sim card in my country), this means that the thief has the phone on and updated it, probably to ios8?

This doesn't really bring nothing new to recover the phone, but i was just curious. It still makes me angry that the police can't really trace or do something about it even after proof of ownership and also that Apple doesn't have something like a blacklist for these stolen iphones

Angry at the police for what? Be realistic what can the police do based on the information you gave them? There is no way to trace it and no suspects. Police are not magicians.

 

[639051]

I think the OP just needs to let it go. Drag a thread up a year later on a forum where no one can help, just let it go man. That or contact Apple and be angry, whatever, posting here about it isn't going to help.

 

[TRC-WA]

Same thing happened to me last year, my iPad mini was stolen out of my wife's purse, i had find my iPhone turned off to save battery and i never saw the iPad again. I filed a police report with the North Hollywood Police Department, they said they would get back to me in 2 weeks, that was over a year ago, never heard from them.

I was on a camping trip this summer with a friend and she left her iPad mini in the bathroom. When she returned 5 minutes later it was gone. She left a note on the bathroom door asking whoever took it from the public bathroom to please return it... Got no response.

I activated lost mode on it and she filed a police report. Didn't hear anything and didn't expect to. She bought another device the following week.

Then 3 days later she got a call from a woman saying that she bought an iPad mini off Craigslist and when she was trying to set it up she got a message saying it was lost and to please call this number.

What are the odds? LOL

She got it back. The lady just gave it to her and said "that's the last time I buy a device that doesn't have a charger or any original boxes/paperwork off Craigslist."

Ya think?

 

[617aircav]

I was on a camping trip this summer with a friend and she left her iPad mini in the bathroom. When she returned 5 minutes later it was gone. She left a note on the bathroom door asking whoever took it from the public bathroom to please return it... Got no response.



I activated lost mode on it and she filed a police report. Didn't hear anything and didn't expect to. She bought another device the following week.



Then 3 days later she got a call from a woman saying that she bought an iPad mini off Craigslist and when she was trying to set it up she got a message saying it was lost and to please call this number.



What are the odds? LOL



She got it back. The lady just gave it to her and said "that's the last time I buy a device that doesn't have a charger or any original boxes/paperwork off Craigslist."



Ya think?

Good story.

 

[macnewbbie]

It seems the phone was less stolen, and more likely found and not returned.

Scummy thing to do, turn it off in the middle of your calling it.

Sorry for your loss.

It would be interesting if you could send it a delete message now. I think, the person who has it, doesn't even know it was stollen, unless whoever picked it up, is still using it. Then it might be just around the corner from you.

Yeah,whoever picked it up had no intentions of giving it back in anyway. They kept it on for a bit but when i started calling it they rejected the call and turned it off.
I still think it was someone that lives on my street since it wasn't a big period of time, but its a somewhat busy street so i don't know.

Don't remove it from your iCloud list. That would play right into the hands of the thief. With iCloud's Find My iPhone still active, even if they wipe the phone, once they turn it on and try to activate it again a message will pop up asking for your iCloud password. This is the 'Activation Lock' feature that makes iPhones useless to thieves. The only way they would be able to access your info is if they knew your iCloud password. So in other words the thief just stole a brick that's only worth its value in parts.

EDIT: Nevermind, just reread the post and realized you turned Find My iPhone off. May as well go ahead and remote wipe it or whatever you want. But the thief has probably already wiped it and restored as new anyway. Maybe even resold it already.

Good advice! It won't do much for me now but in case someone founds themselves in a situation like this, is good to keep this in mind.
Also, don't ever turn off your find my iphone feature. I did to save battery at the time and if i hadn't i would have probably had recovered the phone.

They have find my iphone. If people choose to turn it off there is nothing anyone else can do.

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It's not pointless.

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Angry at the police for what? Be realistic what can the police do based on the information you gave them? There is no way to trace it and no suspects. Police are not magicians.

Im not especifically angry at the police, i know that they did what they could and what is standard. Its more that there isn't a better system to handle these situations. But at least phone OS are implementing more apps and security measures, so that is good.

I think the OP just needs to let it go. Drag a thread up a year later on a forum where no one can help, just let it go man. That or contact Apple and be angry, whatever, posting here about it isn't going to help.

I only brought up this thread because i read about the activation lock system on the ios7/8 and thought "why not put the imei and see what it says?!".
I was very angry at the time - i didn't call apple or anyone ranting or angry about it btw lol - but it still bugs me sometimes and i still have the iphone on my icloud list,so sometimes i remember about it.
The reason i brought up the thread was just to clarify a question i had about the activation lock system, which i have now. However, people are still giving out advice, which i appreciate and while it might not do much for me, it might help someone else.

Again, thank you all for the help and advice given here!

 

[Manatlt]

Apple knows the person who has the phone since it's in their servers. Problem is, Apple won't tell you who for privacy reasons which sucks.