Son got his iPhone stolen today

Gadabout

DMara wrote: »

That's true though. It's not practical to trace each and every stolen phone. It's just a damn phone.

While that very well may be true, they are also damn expensive. Depending on the state, which version of iPhone and how new it was, it could be the difference between a misdemenor and felony for the theft. It would seem if it were felony theft, they would have more incentive to track the phone to find who stole it.

Scott

polkfarmboy

dorokusai wrote: »

Personally I'd pimp slap your boy and then hug him laughing, with a whiskey bottle in the other hand....but that's just me.

Report the phone stolen, and move on.

Lmao...... I bet it would be great to hang out with you at a bar

fatchowmein

Curious. I recently performed the IOS 5 update on my iPhone and during the setup it asked if I wanted the phone to be tracked (or something like that). Did your son update his? I have no idea if or how it works to recover.

TouchOfEvil

Thats why i got the samsung galaxy s ii, everyone wants to steal a iphone not some loser samsung phone.

tonyb

This thread reminds me of the very reason you don't buy a 16 year old a new car. Give them a beater to bounce of the guard rails for a few years.

mantis

Basically my wife had the phone deactivated when she found out the phone was stolen.
When I came home from work , I called ATT and they offered no help at all. I have been with them for over 6 years , purchased many iPhones , been a stealer paying customer with no late payments and they offered no help at all. Since every time you upgrade a phone on your policy, you have to sign a contract for 2 years. I'm paying for my sons line and data plan even though we suspended the line and deactivated his phone. If I cancel the Data plan , I lose the Unlimited forever. Bunch of BS as I have had Unlimited on 2 phones since it's been offered and my sons line for over 2 years now.
Our fault is I didn't make sure he turned on "find my iPhone". When IOS5 came out , he did the upgrade on his phone , we did the Lion upgrade and updates on his iMac , I just assumed he setup iCloud which he decided to do later as he was excited to check out all the new features on his iPhone 4 with Ios5 on it.
What ATT suggested is using my upgrade ability to get him a new phone. I probably will do this for him. He's a great kid and I feel so bad that this happened. Now if I get him a new iPhone and this happens again , he's on his own. We had a long talk about how to protect your personal belonging and being responsible for them.
If you don't lock your car and it gets stolen , it's also your fault , if someone breaks into your house and your doors are unlocked , it's also your fault etc. If you do everything to prevent bad things from happening and it still happens , well you did what you could.

This really sucks by the way. As far as the comments about buying a iPhone for a kid , there is nothing wrong with that. We are a Apple family and there is no other phone I would buy for myself , wife or my kids. They don't have to carry a phone , GPS , Notepad , camera , iPod etc with them. One device to do many things. Yeah it's also a toy but so what , I like to spoil my kids and they deserve it. Reserve judgement for your own children , earn that right by being a parent.

janmike

Dan I totally agree with you outlook. I recently purchased 2 iphones for both my wife and son. Does he need it, somewhat. Does he want it, no doubt. I was a teenager once. I have the ability to provide these small luxuries in life and why not. My son is also a good kid so I promote that behavior. We are also a recently converted Apple family and with an IMAC, Mac Book, 2 iphone4's and 2 ipods I would not have it any other way. I just now need to ensure the "find my iphone" feature is turned on. Thanks for that info.

PS - A colleague game me a demo of the iPhone 4S voice recognition feature and I thought that pretty cool.

mdaudioguy

While it sucks that it happens this way, can you imagine the calls that the providers and manufacturers would get if they could provide tracking info on every "lost or stolen" phone? Of course people would abuse it - even if it was legal and there wasn't a financial disincentive for them to do so...

It's funny that we tend to treat these devices as if they're worth their subsidized cost ($199, $99, free?), until we need to replace them and learn that the unsubsidized cost is substantially more (usually upwards of several hundred dollars). Personally, I know that my kids don't treat their phones like they're valuable at all. Tossing, dropping, misplacing them... one of the reasons why they still have "dumb" phones.

Best of luck resolving the situation.

Upstatemax

That sucks that he never got around to setting up his tracking... It's the FIRST thing I set up on my wifes Iphone, she also tends to lose everything.

She has lost it three times in 8 months, she thinks I don't know... But she does not realize it's setup through my Itunes account and I get an email everytime she tracks the phone, LOL.

The bright side for me, if it does get stolen on my wife, her company foots the bill for a new one. Trust me, they have spent A LOT of money on phones for her over the years. The best move they ever made was getting her an IPhone than can be easily located.

cnh

Doro's response was great! I say, after a year in China and watching a lot of my High Tech Grad students take apart and OPEN/remove network locks from many many iphones, that you get a China Tech to track your phone and watch AT&T take NOTICE...because I guarantee that any number of these Chinese Wiz kids can take that phone and its service DOWN and they don't need to talk to AT&T at ALL (many of these same kids were also writing software for China's ever evolving GPS systems)! And you don't have to worry about any laws on that side. lol

I've seen even Chinese High School students 'disable' an iphone in a few minutes!

I should add, I've 'never' owned one or used one, myself!

cnh

AsSiMiLaTeD

maybe I'm missing something here, but does the whole 'Find my iPhone' thing REALLY work? I have it set up on all my devices because, why not, but does it really work?

If someone steals my phone can't they just go into the settings and disable that option? Anyone who's going to steal a phone is very likely going to know to turn off that option, in which case you're screwed, right?

Sometimes I think people expect a little too much out of technology.

engtaz

you have to turn on find my phone.

AsSiMiLaTeD

Yes, but I'm assuming if it can be turned on it can also be turned off, correct? In which case, I'm I'm going to steal someone's phone I'm just going to turn that off first thing, so what's the point?

Jstas

cnh wrote: »

Doro's response was great! I say, after a year in China and watching a lot of my High Tech Grad students take apart and OPEN/remove network locks from many many iphones, that you get a China Tech to track your phone and watch AT&T take NOTICE...because I guarantee that any number of these Chinese Wiz kids can take that phone and its service DOWN and they don't need to talk to AT&T at ALL (many of these same kids were also writing software for China's ever evolving GPS systems)! And you don't have to worry about any laws on that side. lol

I've seen even Chinese High School students 'disable' an iphone in a few minutes!

I should add, I've 'never' owned one or used one, myself!

cnh

Believe me, there are plenty of people here who can do that as well. Don't sell them short. The Chinese are not unique in that respect. The difference between here and there is that there, there are no Chinese laws against it and the U.S. Government can't arrest you and throw you in jail. Which is a good reason why those here who can do it don't advertise their abilities and they are more difficult to find.

Upstatemax

AsSiMiLaTeD wrote: »

maybe I'm missing something here, but does the whole 'Find my iPhone' thing REALLY work? I have it set up on all my devices because, why not, but does it really work?

If someone steals my phone can't they just go into the settings and disable that option? Anyone who's going to steal a phone is very likely going to know to turn off that option, in which case you're screwed, right?

Sometimes I think people expect a little too much out of technology.

For my wifes IPhone, you need to enter my Itunes password to change the setting.

So yes, you CAN turn it off, but good luck doing it.

exalted512

what if you turn the phone off? can you not just hard reset an iphone? or reformat it?
-Cody

TroyD

It's not a comment on parenting, if you want to arm your kids with 500 dollar phones....that's your choice and there is nothing inherently wrong with it. However, kids are kids. They lose stuff and they break stuff and they are in proximity to people who would probably take a five finger discount. In other words, it goes with the territory. I mean, I feel for you....I had an iPod touch stolen from me and it sucks but it's just the price you pay.

BDT

Glowrdr

exalted512 wrote: »

what if you turn the phone off? can you not just hard reset an iphone? or reformat it?
-Cody

You're exactly right. If the person was smart enough to leave the phone off, and do a reset of it - no password matters. Granted, your info would be safe, but the phone itself would be long gone.

I feel the "find my phone" is much better suited for a lost phone, not a stolen phone.

sucks2beme

You guys are over thinking this. Most of the people that rip off phones are knuckle draggers.
Steal it, pawn it, sell it on CL, buy booze/drugs. They won't have it in their hands long enough
to catch them. By the time he found it missing, it most likely had moved on to somebody who
thought they got a good deal on a used phone.

exalted512

Glowrdr wrote: »

You're exactly right. If the person was smart enough to leave the phone off, and do a reset of it - no password matters. Granted, your info would be safe, but the phone itself would be long gone.

I feel the "find my phone" is much better suited for a lost phone, not a stolen phone.

That's what I figured. I have wavesecure on my android...but if the phone is off, I'm SOL. I have used it to find my phone before though. Didn't know if iPhones were different...or could be easily hard reset.

That's why sometimes (and there might be) I wish there was an app that required a password to turn the phone off.
-Cody

BeefJerky

exalted512 wrote: »

That's what I figured. I have wavesecure on my android...but if the phone is off, I'm SOL. I have used it to find my phone before though. Didn't know if iPhones were different...or could be easily hard reset.

That's why sometimes (and there might be) I wish there was an app that required a password to turn the phone off.
-Cody

Well, that wouldn't help on an Android phone since they could just pull the battery. However, it would be much more difficult to do so on an iPhone. In fact, I guess you could say that is the one and only good argument in favor of the non-user-replaceable battery in the iPhone.

exalted512

true. I didnt even think about that.

I'd make a crappy thief.
-Cody

Gadabout

I use Lookout Mobile Security(android based) on my tablet. Not sure if there is anything like this for the iPhone or iTablets.

I don't have the pay version, which allows remote wiping. The free version allows you to track the phone through GPS and it can turn on the ringer even if it is silent mode.

Scott