Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Chasing down a thief thanks to MobileMe

R

rdstoll

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 15, 2008
273
2
So our iPad got stolen last weekend. Big no bueno. But fortunately we have MobileMe on it and activated the "Find my iPad" feature on it. So I've been able to track down the general area where the stolen iPad is at. That's the good news. The bad news is that the cops won't do a damn thing unless I know for sure 100% where it is at and who might have it. And as I've found out, the iPad's GPS isn't exactly a precise representation of where it is. Every time I refresh its location it moves a bit. So I have it narrowed down to about a half-block radius but can't get a precise GPS coordinate. It's a bit frustrating, frankly.

This Find my iPad feature is great but frankly, if you're in a big city it's all but useless given the inaccuracy of the GPS.
 
jav6454 said:
Can't you get the cops to look for it there...? You have strong evidence, that should be enough for a search warrant.
Click to expand...

+1 You have a GPS location that the iPad is within that vicinity, if you keep checking the iPad, you'll be able to trace exactly where it is and narrow it down to say one block of apartments, that should be enough for a search warrant.
 
One block of a city apartment could be like a 100 households! Many more if it's a tall building. No way is a judge going to allow the police to search all of them (at least I hope not!), and I shudder to think of how many man hours such a search will take, if allowed.
 
Night Spring said:
One block of a city apartment could be like a 100 households! Many more if it's a tall building. No way is a judge going to allow the police to search all of them (at least I hope not!), and I shudder to think of how many man hours such a search will take, if allowed.
Click to expand...

If it's regular homes (ie not apartments) then a search warrant is called for. The GPS lock is more than enough evidence that there is stolen property in the vicinity.
 
dukebound85 said:
Do you have experience with this? You speak as if you are an authority on the subject (maybe you are)
Click to expand...

Yes. Experience. When my dad got his car stolen, the security company had a GPS lock on it within a two home/house area. Police got a search warranty solely on the GPS lock. Found the car in the second house and busted the lady and 3 guys there. Simple.

Sure an iPad is not worth as much as a car, but stolen property is stolen property. Besides, being an iPad, it can have sensible information making this crime Identity concerning also.
 
In a previous theft on this thread the OP managed to get the cops to retrieve the stolen iPad. That was in NYC. It really depends where you live (densely populated or not) but in any case you should really bug the cops to do something!!!!
 
jav6454 said:
Yes. Experience. When my dad got his car stolen, the security company had a GPS lock on it within a two home/house area. Police got a search warranty solely on the GPS lock. Found the car in the second house and busted the lady and 3 guys there. Simple.

Sure an iPad is not worth as much as a car, but stolen property is stolen property. Besides, being an iPad, it can have sensible information making this crime Identity concerning also.
Click to expand...

jav6454 said:
If it's regular homes (ie not apartments) then a search warrant is called for. The GPS lock is more than enough evidence that there is stolen property in the vicinity.
Click to expand...

Car is a lot larger and lojack can usually be tracked to a single residence.

No judge will issue a warrant to search an entire group of homes or apartments to search for a stolen ipad. You need a specific suspect and some sort of reasonably compelling evidence that individual has the stolen goods (or other stolen goods or other criminal activity at the address).

Blanket warrants are a bad idea!!

Cheers,
 
GadgetAddict said:
In a previous theft on this thread the OP managed to get the cops to retrieve the stolen iPad. That was in NYC. It really depends where you live (densely populated or not) but in any case you should really bug the cops to do something!!!!
Click to expand...

In that case, they had a specific suspect, because it was taken from the airport so they correlated airport employees to people who lived in that neighborhood. They didn't do a house-by-house search of an entire city block!

In a tall building, let's say 20 stories tall, even if the GPS tracked the iPad to within an inch, they could be searching 20 apartments. Seesh!
 
OP, I certainly don't want you to put yourself in any situation in which you feel danger, but if you cannot get the cops to help, you may try going to the area. If you feel it is safe, just start asking around if people have noticed anything suspicious or seen someone flaunting a new iPad. Hopefully your thief finds out about this (and possibly not knowing it was GPS that tracked them) gets nervous and decides to try and sell it to a pawn shop or something. When it moves, you can track it. Hopefully the new location will give you better luck. Have you already filed the appropriate insurance claims if applicable?
 
Night Spring said:
In that case, they had a specific suspect, because it was taken from the airport so they correlated airport employees to people who lived in that neighborhood. They didn't do a house-by-house search of an entire city block!

In a tall building, let's say 20 stories tall, even if the GPS tracked the iPad to within an inch, they could be searching 20 apartments. Seesh!
Click to expand...

Agreed. What would you suggest in this case?

The OP can see his iPad but can't get it! How frustrating is that??
 
GadgetAddict said:
The OP can see his iPad but can't get it! How frustrating is that??
Click to expand...

I do feel for the OP. I would be extremely frustrated too if I were in his position. But I certainly don't want cops searching *my* apartment just because they know there's a stolen iPad *somewhere* in the building.
 
If you don't feel safe I'd be checking the location as much as possible to see if it ever moves. Maybe they take it out and bring it back. You might be able to track a specific car this way.
 
GadgetAddict said:
The OP can see his iPad but can't get it! How frustrating is that??
Click to expand...

I feel for the OP, but I would be very surprised if a judge would issue ANY search warrant -- even with a specific address -- for a fourth-degree grand theft charge. In fact, depending on the type of ipad stolen, this could be considered petty theft... a misdemeanor.

The police are more likely to take your statement so you can make a claim for your homeowner's insurance.

Many of us (including me) share the belief that more information is always better... but in this case it is really not so.
 
vastoholic said:
If you don't feel safe I'd be checking the location as much as possible to see if it ever moves. Maybe they take it out and bring it back. You might be able to track a specific car this way.
Click to expand...

Here's whatcha gotta do:

Observe the location via findmyiphone for a period of time, and you'll notice the circle around the ipad will get bigger and smaller over time. When it is really small and you think you can narrow in on 1 building head over there with a laptop and a friend. Park out front, and have your friend "gain" access to the building, and starting on the 1st floor have him walk through the halls while you're in the car sending notes/setting off the alarm on your ipad. Make sure to send non suspicious notes i.e. make them look like text messages.

Hopefully the building is only a few stories tall, and within no time your friend will be able to narrow the alarm down to a single apartment. At which point you join him inside, knock on the door, and rush the apartment when they open the door, snatching your iPad and getting the heck out of there.

Let me know how it works.
 
Freedomepalin said:
Here's whatcha gotta do:

Observe the location via findmyiphone for a period of time, and you'll notice the circle around the ipad will get bigger and smaller over time. When it is really small and you think you can narrow in on 1 building head over there with a laptop and a friend. Park out front, and have your friend "gain" access to the building, and starting on the 1st floor have him walk through the halls while you're in the car sending notes/setting off the alarm on your ipad. Make sure to send non suspicious notes i.e. make them look like text messages.

Hopefully the building is only a few stories tall, and within no time your friend will be able to narrow the alarm down to a single apartment. At which point you join him inside, knock on the door, and rush the apartment when they open the door, snatching your iPad and getting the heck out of there.

Let me know how it works.
Click to expand...

So....you figure the iPad notification alarm will be audible in the hallway when it goes off in someone's apartment?

What are the walls made of where you live, paper?

Non-sense....complete non-sense.
 
3lionsbecks said:
So....you figure the iPad notification alarm will be audible in the hallway when it goes off in someone's apartment?

What are the walls made of where you live, paper?

Non-sense....complete non-sense.
Click to expand...

Just add a few more friends and some equipment! Lets say you narrow it down to 50 apartments. Get 50 friends and equip each one with one of those little satellite dish looking spy listening devices and have each one zero in on one of the apartments. Then send the alarm message and viola! Culprit exposed!
 
You do know you can also message the iPad from MobileMe, and get the piercing beeping to notify whoever has it that you know it's missing. This may not work, but I think it is worth a shot if you have not done so yet.

My girlfriend lost her iPhone in a ballroom at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas, and so I did the find my iphone from my phone, and it showed us that it was still in the hotel. I tried calling it and nobody answered, so we then set up a remote lock (making it useless). We then sent it a message with my phone number, and 10 minutes later I received a call from a random number, and someone heard the alarm going off under the chair and 20 minutes later we met up and had the phone.

I am not saying you will always find someone nice enough to do the right thing, but MobileMe has a few different options, and all of them are very useful.
 
daver11 said:
Just add a few more friends and some equipment! Lets say you narrow it down to 50 apartments. Get 50 friends and equip each one with one of those little satellite dish looking spy listening devices and have each one zero in on one of the apartments. Then send the alarm message and viola! Culprit exposed!
Click to expand...

:D

well that makes sense then!!
:p
 
chrmjenkins said:
OP, I certainly don't want you to put yourself in any situation in which you feel danger, but if you cannot get the cops to help, you may try going to the area. If you feel it is safe, just start asking around if people have noticed anything suspicious or seen someone flaunting a new iPad. Hopefully your thief finds out about this (and possibly not knowing it was GPS that tracked them) gets nervous and decides to try and sell it to a pawn shop or something. When it moves, you can track it. Hopefully the new location will give you better luck. Have you already filed the appropriate insurance claims if applicable?
Click to expand...

I've already been down there and when the ipad pops up I head over there to see if I can find someone with it. The problem is that I can only narrow it down to one of six 2-3 level apartment buildings, and the cops say they can't (or don't want to) go door to door trying to find it. Basically, only if I can track it down for sure and I have a good sense of who might have it. It's extremely frustrating to be within feet of recovering this thing but not being able to pinpoint it to the exact spot. If nothing else, it's a bit of an adventure and if these clowns think I'm going to give up on it they have another thing coming!
 
IamHermann0069 said:
You do know you can also message the iPad from MobileMe, and get the piercing beeping to notify whoever has it that you know it's missing. This may not work, but I think it is worth a shot if you have not done so yet.
Click to expand...

Yeah I commanded MobileMe to make noise on it and I literally stood in an alley at 5:30am listening for the sound but could not hear it. Have also sent a few dozen threatening messages with my Google Voice number added on in case they wanted to give up.
 
Have you contacted Apple and let them know it was stolen? I'm not sure if they would take any interest in your lost item or if they could help at all. Worth a shot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back