Apple’s Find My iPhone led San Francisco police on a 90MPH car chase last night which ultimately led to the arrest of three suspected armed robbers.
My normally sleepy neighborhood in San Francisco has been plagued recently with a string of violent and scary armed street robberies.
For the last week or so, a gang of violent perps have been robbing people of gadgets like their iPhones at gunpoint. But last night, an iPhone hit them back.
On Tuesday night, three people were robbed at gunpoint by two muggers. One of the neighbors was pistol whipped when he resisted. Among the items stolen was an iPhone.
After the robbery, the muggers sped away in a car driven by a third suspect. In their haste, they bounced off several parked cars, badly damaging their getaway vehicle.
The victims soon tracked down a cop who had an iPad in his patrol vehicle. Bad news for the perps!
The cop fired up Find My iPhone and entered the victim’s login. As we all know, Find My iPhone allows an iOS device to be tracked by another iOS device. The cop’s iPad immediately got a lock on the stolen phone, and the cop sped off to give chase.
The cop located the getaway car (presumably by the damage it had accrued when smashing off of the parked cars) and a 90MPH freeway chase ensued. Dodging in and out of traffic, the alleged robbers crashed the getaway car and were arrested.
According to the Bernalwood blog, the victims got all their property back (except, oddly, a Teach Youself Italian book). And the Bernal Heights neighborhood is breathing a sigh of relief.
Source: Bernalwood
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
One response to “Find My iPhone Captures Suspected Muggers After High-Speed Chase”
Hey Leander, I was the victim whose iPhone was tracked. Apparently, most robbers turn off the iPhones to prevent this, so I can tell you the police were stoked when they got a hit probably less than 15 minutes from the actual event. And as I was coming home from work, so they not only got my phone and wallet, but my briefcase with my MacBook Air, an Android tablet, and an expensive camera. How stoked was I when they caught the guys still in possession of my stuff? If you don’t have Find My iPhone installed, INSTALL IT NOW!!