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'Find My iPhone' Leads to Criminals' Arrest

by Caleb Johnson on July 29, 2009 at 03:57 PM

When Colorado resident Dustin Simantob and his dad returned to their car after a three-day river trip, they found the windows busted out and their belongings, including two iPhones, stolen. While they reported the crime to the Mesa County Sheriff's Department, the 15-year-old boy decided to do some detective work of his own.

In an e-mailed account of his story, Simantob told Mashable that a new feature for the iPhone's OS 3.0 led to the recovery of his stuff and the arrest of the criminals. When he got home, Simantob used the much ballyhooed 'Find My iPhone' feature to pinpoint the exact address where his device was located. The feature, powered by MobileMe, also allows you to remotely display a custom message on the phone's home screen or to even erase all your personal information from the phone, but Simantob didn't have to resort to that. He called the police who, according to the boy, laughed when he read the address. Apparently, these petty thieves were well known in Mesa County. The police went over and recovered Simantob's iPhone, his wallet, his dad's iPhone, a GPS, and even some belongings taken from another car.

Apple couldn't write up a better endorsement for this iPhone feature. They should go ahead and ask Simantob and his dad to officially endorse it. As for the criminals, they'll be spending some time behind bars. Of course, that doesn't mean they won't continue to handle hot phones. [From: Mashable, via Gawker]

Tags: apple, colorado, criminal, dumb criminal, DumbCriminal, find my iphone, FindMyIphone, iphone, mobileme, police, smartphone

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