Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Man Uses 'Find My iPhone' to Locate Stolen Stuff

by Caleb Johnson on August 31, 2009 at 02:40 PM


Technology is making life a lot tougher for the average criminal. In the past, a mask and a quick set of feet were all a robber needed to get away with mugging someone on the street. While that still might work if they're only taking cash, thieves might want to let victims keep their iPhones.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, an unnamed man used the 'Find My iPhone' feature to help police track down his property and three suspects. The man was walking down a Pittsburgh street around 1 a.m. early Saturday morning when three men approached him, one brandishing a gun, and asked for his wallet, the PINs to his cards, and his iPhone. Immediately, the man called the bank to cancel his cards and the police to report the crime. When he got home later that morning, the man used his computer and his iPhone's GPS function to track the suspects to an area Walmart. That very day, police arrested the men at a nearby restaurant and charged them each with two counts of access device fraud, conspiracy, receiving stolen property, and possessing instruments of crime. Two of the suspects have been charged with robbery.
Has your cell phone ever been stolen?
Yes485 (32.7%)
No940 (63.3%)
I'm not sure.59 (4.0%)

This isn't the first time Apple has helped fight crime, either. Last year, a crafty young lady used a built-in webcam to locate her stolen Macbook. From the looks of it, that Apple-shaped logo is akin to a certain bat-shaped symbol, in that it makes criminals shake in their boots. Now, if they could only get Steve Jobs to wear a cape... [From: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via TUAW]
http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes=uiConfig,feedConfig,entry&id=554917&pid=554916&uts=1251863688
http://cdn.channel.aol.com/cs_feed_v1_6/csfeedwrapper.swf
Busted... by Technology

Busted... by Technology

    Always Turn Off Stolen GPS Units
    It was only a matter of time before some numbskull criminal stole a GPS-equipped car or phone, but we didn't expect someone to steal live GPS units. A group of crooks in Lindenhurst, NY swiped 14 functioning GPS devices from the Town of Babylon Public Works. Understandably, authorities had no trouble tracking them down.

    Security Cam Catches Tattooed Thief
    We're not going to pass judgement on the type of tattoo you get, but you might want to think about what it says before you start getting into crime. Aaron Evans, a 21-year-old U.K. repeat offender, was caught stealing a car's GPS unit because the nearby CCTV captured the tattoo on his neck. It revealed his birthday and name...

    Laptop Auto-Uploads Photo of Thief to the Web
    This guy may be the unluckiest thief ever. Several laptops disappeared from a Vancouver, BC company; fortunately, one particular laptop was loaded with software that snapped photos when opened. The images of this guy were uploaded to Flickr. As a result, the man became a mini-Internet sensation, and he turned himself in, claiming he bought the laptop from a friend, at a local police station.

    Things Not to Do After Stealing a Cell Phone
    Gary Walker, an Ohio resident, stole a woman's phone while she had temporarily stepped out of her car to check a street sign. He proceeded to snap a shot of himself with the hot phone's camera. Later, when the victim went online and downloaded her data to transfer it to a new phone, Gary's mug popped up. The rest, as they say, is history.

    HighTube
    This 25-year-old Brit cultivator of cannabis decided to post videos -- under his real name -- of his cash crop on YouTube. English police saw the clips and he was soon tracked down and arrested.

    Girl Recovers Stolen Mac By Remotely Activating Its Webcam
    A White Plains, New York girl was the victim of burglary; over $5,000 worth of electronics, including iPods, a flatscreen TV, and a new Macintosh computer were stolen. A few days later, a friend noticed that the burglary victim appeared to be online, but called her to make sure. Because the stolen Mac was running Back to My Mac, the victim was able to log into the computer remotely and snap a picture of the thief. Turns out the thieves were "friends" who had visited the victim's apartment several weeks earlier.

    Teen Arrested After Bragging About Arson on Security Cameras
    A pregnant Los Angeles teen was arrested earlier after allegedly starting seven fires near her home. 19-year-old Amanda Gessner was caught after convenience store cameras caught her chanting, "The fire company is gonna be
    mad at me!" She was certainly right about that!

    Would-Be Voyeur Puts Spy Cam in Restroom, Leaves Video of Himself
    An upstate New York man installed a camera in a unisex bathroom. The camera was discovered soon after installation, and police found he'd left a video of himself on the camera. Police are still looking for the man.

    Forklift Tricks on YouTube
    If you're going to show off your sweet forklift driving skills to your buddies, it's probably best to just do it in person. 20-year-old Australian Matthew Garry Ward uploaded a video of safety-violating forklift tricks to YouTube, and was reported to authorities after a coworker passed the video along to the boss.

    Laser Pointer Shenanigans
    Remember those time-sucking high school pep rallies where some loser would whip out a laser pointer and temporarily blind people in the bleachers? This 15-year-old genius from California, was arrested after shining his laser beam at a police helicopter.


Tags: apple, crime, dumb criminal, DumbCriminal, gps, iphone, police, robbery, top

Comments

10

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular