Stolen iPhone Leads To Arrest Of Armed Robbers


Published Oct 08, 2012 at 05:37 PM | 839 views

A scary evening in Atlanta recently turned into a big arrest for police. Five women were talking in front of the Baltimore Hotel when two armed men approached the group demanding their purses, and other valuables including any electronic devices. The women quickly complied providing the thieves with everything they wanted. While the robbers may have believed that everything went off without a hitch, they were in for quite a surprise later that evening.

After the ladies contacted the police about the incident one of them reported that her iPhone was also taken. The police accessed the 'Find My Phone' app which uses the devices internal GPS to send an exact location of the phone. Using this information the police tracked the suspects to an apartment complex. The police took the two by surprise and had them in custody within hours after the robbery took place, returning all the stolen goods to the women, who properly identified both men as the armed robbers.

This is just one of a growing number of similar stories where criminals are arrested after stealing these high end smart phones. In New York City a 21 year old man stole a new iPhone from a woman. The woman quickly contacted the police, who used the same Find My iPhone and caught up with the criminal in under an hour. In Las Angeles a man stabbed a woman while taking her iPhone, the woman reported the issue to police after being taken to the hospital. The police had the man in custody within five hours after using the app to track him to Pasadena.

As more and more people have smart phones and tablet devices it was inevitable that their theft would become a huge problem. The manufacturers have come up with these apps which have helped many people get their stolen devices back quickly and easily, as well as leading to the arrest of many thieves. Apple's latest operating system, iOS6 has an updated version of the app which allows you to remotely lock out your device so it can't be used except to call you in case it is found. The hope is that these types of apps will serve as a deterrent to would be thieves.