Stolen Iphone 4

[jlfirehawk]

So my 15 year old son had his Iphone 4 stolen last night from Kings Island while he was playing volleyball they went through his friends whole families bags and only took his phone left the otterbox case behind and took $20 out of his wallet and then dropped his whole bag and left his buddies crappy cell phone. It does have the locate me on it but they have the phone turned off so right now I cannot locate it, it does have a lock code on it. Is there anything else I should do, you can bet as soon as this phone shows up I will have my wonderful DEA coworkers show up at this persons house but should I report it to Verizon as stolen or should I leave it unsuspended right now in hopes that we can locate it. Unfortunately he only had this one for 3 months so there is no way I can afford to by a replacement out of contract. There is anything they can really do with the phone with it being locked with a code?

 

[webdave]

They can just hard reset the phone to remove any tracking/security codes from it. If you aren't going to recover it just report it to Verizon and they will blacklist the ESN making it pretty much useless on Verizon's network.

 

[gorcorps]

You can report it as stolen and the phone will be banned from service. Unfortunately that doesn't stop them from selling it to somebody anyway.

 

[Dulanic]

You can report it as stolen and the phone will be banned from service. Unfortunately that doesn't stop them from selling it to somebody anyway.

Well especially since it's so easy to swap ESN.

 

[jlfirehawk]

Ok thanks, hopefully they see the lock codes etc and just dump it and it gets found.

 

[kaerflog]

Ok thanks, hopefully they see the lock codes etc and just dump it and it gets found.

Thats not happenning.

 

[jacktesterson]

Thats not happenning.

Its too easy to do this. A quick google, I say your not getting the phone back bud. Sorry.

Somebody is buying a stolen iphone this weekend probably.

 

[kaerflog]

All you have to do is to hook it into itunes and restore it.
I don't get that some people think there is recourse with a phone being stolen.
Its a small desirable object with value just like a wallet.
Sorry OP, I don't mean to be harsh but I see people losing phones all the time and I wonder why don't they guard it as safely as say a wallet.

 

[pm]

Keep watching the find my iPhone website. I know one person who recovered their phone by watching until it lit up, printing out the map and taking it to the police and then an officer accompanied the person to the house where the occupant handed it over. It's happened... but as other have said, it's uncommon.

Wait a few days before reporting it to Verizon though because once you blacklist it, find-my-iphone isn't going to work any more. Just watch the website and hope you get lucky.

 

[jpeyton]

Hopefully the crooks who took it don't live in high-density housing, like an apartment building. Your iPhone can give you a fairly accurate set of coordinates, but it can't tell you what floor in a building they live in.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

You'll never get it back gg

 

[Phokus]

On the bright side, you son can get a much better phone, like the SGS3

 

[lupi]

All you have to do is to hook it into itunes and restore it.
I don't get that some people think there is recourse with a phone being stolen.
Its a small desirable object with value just like a wallet.
Sorry OP, I don't mean to be harsh but I see people losing phones all the time and I wonder why don't they guard it as safely as say a wallet.

doesn't really apply in this case since the wallet seems to have been left just as casually next to the phone.

 

[kaerflog]

doesn't really apply in this case since the wallet seems to have been left just as casually next to the phone.

The point is I see people are so careless in safe guarding their phones and wonder why it get stolen.
I mean most phones are $400-$600.
Do you just let $400-$600 sit around instead of putting it in the utmost safe place ??
Again, I'm not picking on the OP. I just see this type of situation all the time when it could be prevented.

 

[Rottie]

do you have an insurance for your iPhone? Just wondering that is all.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

On the bright side, you son can get a much better phone, like the SGS3

He won't want it. All the cool kids have I phones.

 

[Tom]

we miraculously recovered my granddaughter's stolen iphone after 3 months. Guy tried to do do something with it online and Verizon called us and asked if it was us. They gave us his email, which was on FB..police went to his house and knocked, when he let them in the phone was sitting there charging..

 

[kaerflog]

we miraculously recovered my granddaughter's stolen iphone after 3 months. Guy tried to do do something with it online and Verizon called us and asked if it was us. They gave us his email, which was on FB..police went to his house and knocked, when he let them in the phone was sitting there charging..

Nice.

 

[lothar]

we miraculously recovered my granddaughter's stolen iphone after 3 months. Guy tried to do do something with it online and Verizon called us and asked if it was us. They gave us his email, which was on FB..police went to his house and knocked, when he let them in the phone was sitting there charging..

1.) Did you report the phone stolen to Verizon prior to Verizon noticing what the person was trying to do online? or was it something Verizon noticed out of the blue?
2.) If you did, I assume you didn't blacklist the ESN?
3.) How did Verizon get his email? Packet sniffing?
4.) What exactly was he trying to do online that he was caught by Verizon? If Verizon didn't tell you, you could have tried to figure it out by browsing your phone after you got it back(on Android at least, not sure about the iPhone).

 

[soccerballtux]

we miraculously recovered my granddaughter's stolen iphone after 3 months. Guy tried to do do something with it online and Verizon called us and asked if it was us. They gave us his email, which was on FB..police went to his house and knocked, when he let them in the phone was sitting there charging..

waaaaaat?????

yes interested in answers to above questions ^^^