From reuniting families separated by a California wildfire to tracking down kidnapping victims, there are plenty of high drama stories concerning Apple’s location-tracking Find My iPhone/iPad feature for iOS.
Well, you can add one more to the list — as police in Bangkok recently captured a violent armed gang responsible for a string of vicious robberies in the country’s northern region — all thanks to their ill-advised decision to steal an iPad mini with the feature enabled.
The iPad mini was stolen in a brazen motorcycle snatch on Saturday, during which its owner was threatened and made to hand over his tablet and some cash.
Fortunately, police were able to track the pilfered device to a rented house in the city of Nonthaburi. There they caught one member of the gang, but other members of the notorious “Ma Diaw” gang escaped dramatically by leaping out of a window and into the Chao Praya river.
The wrongdoers’ efforts were all for naught, however, because not long after their dip they were rounded up and arrested. Alongside the stolen iPad, their hideout was found to contain copious amounts of drugs, ammunition and cash.
There’s a lesson in this somewhere — and it certainly involves making sure the Find my iPhone/iPad feature is enabled on your device.
And probably not being part of a violent Bangkok armed gang, too. Especially if you plan on stealing iPads!
Via: ThaiVisaNews
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
3 responses to “Find My iPad leads police to gang of armed robbers”
Hope they get 50 years in some Bangkok Hilton prison… #Mouhahahahahaha
They can probably afford some high-priced lawyer to spring them in a short time.
I am not going to bore you with my own Find My iPhone story, but allow me to say that two three weeks ago I lost my 6 Plus at a retail store while shopping, I placed the phone on lost mode, called the police, and the wannabe thief returned the device next day, it works!!