We do a lot of police blotter reading around here. (We’re old-school like that). So we’ve noticed a divide in cases involving iPhones and iPads that go missing and then get found with Apple’s Find my iPhone app.
Within a month of launching the service, police in San Jose used it tracked down a pair of thieves who broke into the house of an Apple employee. Busted. Arrested. Makes sense.
But what if you left your iPad on a train? Or the roof of your car? Or on an airplane? Or in a shopping cart?
No arrests were made in any of these recent cases.
Former England Rugby captain Will Carling left his iPad on a train. Carling went to great lengths to track his down – leaving 18 notes for tenants in an apartment building where his iPad ended up.
Once the person who had found it realized whose device it was (Carling sent messages telling the finders-keepers-hopeful he was tracking it), the app showed its owner that it was heading back to lost-and-found at the train station.
Other cases – where the devices were “left” or “lost” have led to arrests.
Would you be satisfied to have your iPad or iPhone returned or would you press charges?
