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Guy Loses iPhone and iPad in the 'Trash,' Uses MobileMe to Recover Them

by Amar Toor on June 22, 2010 at 05:03 PM

tracking the ipad to hooters
For iPhone users, the MobileMe 'Find My iPhone' service is kind of like a first-aid kit; we all like to have it around, but we'd never want to be in a situation where we'd actually have to use it. Yet, those are exactly the dire straits in which one Eric Boehs recently found himself after mysteriously misplacing both his iPhone and iPad.

As Wired reports, the saga unfolded when Eric hurried to get his trash bags to the curb before an approaching garbage truck arrived. He grabbed the trash, ran outside, and, at some point, set down his bag, which contained his iPhone and iPad. When he returned, both devices were missing, apparently having been carted away by the garbage truck. Tech savvy as he is, Eric raced to his Mac and used the MobileMe feature to hunt down his iPhone. The app pinpointed the phone at a nearby Hooter's, where the garbagemen were either eating lunch, picking up trash, or, most likely, both. When the iPhone didn't move for 45 minutes, Eric hopped in the car along with an iPad-equipped friend named Billy, and a videographer who documented the event.

Eric tracked the iPhone using Billy's iPad, but shortly after they left, the garbage crew was already on the move. Eventually, though, the crew stayed in one place long enough for Eric's search party to catch up to it. Yet when they arrived, there was no garbage truck in sight. They searched through a nearby dumpster and came up empty. They used MobileMe to beep the iPhone. Still nothing.

After knocking in desperation on neighbors' doors, and aggravating an outlaw who was none too pleased to see a video camera, the group finally came upon a couple of roofers who were taking a break. They asked them if they'd seen the devices, and, much to their delight, they had. Turns out, neither the iPad nor the iPhone were ever on the garbage truck. Apparently, they were just run over by a car. After stumbling upon them and assuming they were broken, the roofers decided to just throw them in their trunk. The devices, unfortunately, weren't in great shape: the iPhone worked, but its screen was mangled, and the iPad's screen was intact, but its frame had been badly warped. Fairy tale ending? Not exactly. A testament to MobileMe's lifesaving capabilities? Definitely. [From: Wired]




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