Recovering An iPad From Someone Who May Have Stolen It

Romanian My Escutcheon

I accidentally left my iPad on the campus of my university yesterday, and after a couple of hours of searching, I had to call it off and head home.

I remotely locked it, and set it up so that I'd get an e-mail in the event that it tried to reconnect to any network before I went to bed last night, and when I woke up this morning I had an e-mail saying that it'd tried to connect to the Internet at a private address, about two miles away from my school.

I've locked the iPad again, and I managed to set it up so that my phone number would show up, as well as a message to whoever found it; I'm still waiting to hear back from them, and I'm hoping for the best.

In the event that whoever found it isn't going to give it back, what are my options? I don't want to just drive up to the guy's house and make a fuss, but I really want to get it back; the message I left mentioned offering a reward for its safe return, and I'm definitely willing to pay to get it back, but I'm wondering if there's any other option.

TL;DR: What's the responsible way to confront a potential thief?

Fantasma

You do not confront a thief, file a report with the police, provide proof you are the owner, and any relevant information to locate the new owner of your phone, be friendly, and if they refuse to live their chair to get your property ask for advice.

Esh

Did you put the "Find iPhone/iPad" app on it?

Romanian My Escutcheon

Esh wrote: »

Did you put the "Find iPhone/iPad" app on it?

Yeah, that's how I found the location and locked it.

Esh

Call the cops. Show them that it's tracked from your iPhone. Let them confront the thief.

Romanian My Escutcheon

Esh wrote: »

Call the cops. Show them that it's tracked from your iPhone. Let them confront the thief.

For clarification's sake, I'm tracking it from my desktop; I don't actually have an iPhone.

Romanian My Escutcheon

Also, in the event that I do get the cops involved, should I contact university police, or the city cops?

I mean, it was stolen on campus, but I'm not sure if they're allowed to go to private residences and check for this kind of stuff.

Bowen

City cops, it's theft of property. Your may or may not have campus cops that are real cops, this varies from state to state and school to school.

Romanian My Escutcheon

Alright, three (hopefully) last questions.

1) Would it suffice just to call the cops, or should I physically show up at the precinct nearest to the address and fill out a report?

2) If I call/go into the precinct, what kind of proof should I show up with to prove that it's my iPad? I have the tracking information, but I doubt that will be enough.

3) How completely screwed am I? (I realize that this is a less-than-empirical question, but I feel like shit about this whole deal, and I keep hoping that somebody can honestly tell me that I'll get my property back.)

Thanks for the help, guys.

EDIT: Actually, one last question, what's the minimum amount of time I should give this guy to contact me about giving it back? Should I go to the precinct today, or should I give him a day or two to do the honest thing?

Fantasma

I would not call this theft, the phone was not actually stolen from you, you were just careless and lost it, somebody found it and decided to keep it.

acidlacedpenguin

Fantasma wrote: »

I would not call this theft, the phone was not actually stolen from you, you were just careless and lost it, somebody found it and decided to keep it.

finder's keepers isn't a real law.

Darkewolfe

Fantasma wrote: »

I would not call this theft, the phone was not actually stolen from you, you were just careless and lost it, somebody found it and decided to keep it.

Wut.

Yes, this is theft. You don't just keep shit you find lying around.

Call the local police and let them decide if they want to refer you to the university police. Do NOT just go to the address or something.

a5ehren

Romanian My Escutcheon wrote: »

Alright, three (hopefully) last questions.

1) Would it suffice just to call the cops, or should I physically show up at the precinct nearest to the address and fill out a report?

2) If I call/go into the precinct, what kind of proof should I show up with to prove that it's my iPad? I have the tracking information, but I doubt that will be enough.

3) How completely screwed am I? (I realize that this is a less-than-empirical question, but I feel like shit about this whole deal, and I keep hoping that somebody can honestly tell me that I'll get my property back.)

Thanks for the help, guys.

EDIT: Actually, one last question, what's the minimum amount of time I should give this guy to contact me about giving it back? Should I go to the precinct today, or should I give him a day or two to do the honest thing?

The tracking will be enough for them to send some dudes to ask about it probably. Especially if its a smaller town and they don't have anything else going on. I would just call and say "Someone stole my stuff and I've tracked it to this address: [address here]. Can you please send some uniformed officers to ask about it?"

I'd say go to the cops today before the guy figures out how to wipe/sell it. I can't imagine he hasn't seen your message yet, so you need to be moving as fast as possible.

Bowen

Being negligent does not abscond someone else of a crime.

Me leaving my door unlocked does not give someone permission to come in and steal my PS3.

Fantasma

bowen wrote: »

Being negligent does not abscond someone else of a crime.

Me leaving my door unlocked does not give someone permission to come in and steal my PS3.

This is not a case of someone leaving a door open, this is someone being negligent, careless, s... with a cell phone. Now, the OP can say anything he wants and accuse the other guy of theft, but the other guy can say anything he wants too: Phone, what phone? oh yes, the piece of crap i found in the trash in my university.

zagdrob

Fantasma wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

Being negligent does not abscond someone else of a crime.

Me leaving my door unlocked does not give someone permission to come in and steal my PS3.

This is not a case of someone leaving a door open, this is someone being negligent, careless, s... with a cell phone. Now, the OP can say anything he wants and accuse the other guy of theft, but the other guy can say anything he wants too: Phone, what phone? oh yes, the piece of crap i found in the trash in my university.

A person who finds a lost item needs to make reasonable efforts to find the rightful owner or turn it over to authorities. If they don't and just claim the item for themselves, it's absolutely theft.

It's not reasonable to expect that someone would simply discard a working iPad, so even if they found it in the trash there is an obligation to (attempt to) return it to the owners / turn it into police.

Thundyrkatz

Call the cops, give them the address. Don't give the thief any time to wipe the phone. This happens fairly often see the following articles.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/girl-foils-would-be-thief-with-iphone-app/
http://www.suntimes.com/news/crime/9421297-418/story.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023343/iPhone-thief-caught-victim-finds-using-tracking-app.html

a5ehren

Fantasma wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

Being negligent does not abscond someone else of a crime.

Me leaving my door unlocked does not give someone permission to come in and steal my PS3.

This is not a case of someone leaving a door open, this is someone being negligent, careless, s... with a cell phone. Now, the OP can say anything he wants and accuse the other guy of theft, but the other guy can say anything he wants too: Phone, what phone? oh yes, the piece of crap i found in the trash in my university.

You are so utterly wrong about this I don't even know where to begin. Zag pretty much covered it, though.

Romanian My Escutcheon

Alright, I filed an online incident report with the campus police, and I called the local cops.

It went straight to a message for someone (not an operator), so I told them that I accidentally left the iPad on campus, locked it remotely, and got an e-mail with the address it connected from.

I also gave them my home phone and cell numbers to call if they needed anything else from me.

GrimmyTOA

I might keep calling their non-emergency number until you actually get through to a human being.

Romanian My Escutcheon

GrimmyTOA wrote: »

I might keep calling their non-emergency number until you actually get through to a human being.

I actually just got a call back from them, they told me to call the university police, because apparently the address I gave them is an apartment complex, and without a specific apartment number there's not much they can do.

Of course I don't know what good it's going to do to call the police on campus, since they probably won't know either.

Esh

Romanian My Escutcheon wrote: »

GrimmyTOA wrote: »

I might keep calling their non-emergency number until you actually get through to a human being.

I actually just got a call back from them, they told me to call the university police, because apparently the address I gave them is an apartment complex, and without a specific apartment number there's not much they can do.

Of course I don't know what good it's going to do to call the police on campus, since they probably won't know either.

The app can easily track the iPad to a specific apartment.

Gaslight

Fantasma wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

Being negligent does not abscond someone else of a crime.

Me leaving my door unlocked does not give someone permission to come in and steal my PS3.

This is not a case of someone leaving a door open, this is someone being negligent, careless, s... with a cell phone. Now, the OP can say anything he wants and accuse the other guy of theft, but the other guy can say anything he wants too: Phone, what phone? oh yes, the piece of crap i found in the trash in my university.

Fantasma, posting from stolen found devices as we speak. :P

Romanian My Escutcheon

Esh wrote: »

Romanian My Escutcheon wrote: »

GrimmyTOA wrote: »

I might keep calling their non-emergency number until you actually get through to a human being.

I actually just got a call back from them, they told me to call the university police, because apparently the address I gave them is an apartment complex, and without a specific apartment number there's not much they can do.

Of course I don't know what good it's going to do to call the police on campus, since they probably won't know either.

The app can easily track the iPad to a specific apartment.

I double checked, so far I've just been using the app's standard map view; I switched to satellite, and this was as close as I could get.

I'm not sure whether that means they tried to log in from that specific spot, or if it's just giving me a general area.

Romanian My Escutcheon

And, yes, I made sure the iPad was locked the whole night, so either it can't connect to a local network to update me, or the guy who found it hasn't tried to get back into it.

Romanian My Escutcheon

Quick update; apparently the online report I filled out doesn't mean anything, and they want me to file a report at the station before they can do anything else.

I'm becoming more and more afraid that the cops won't be able to do anything.

Deadfall

If they can't do anything I'd be very surprised. This isn't your Gameboy getting swiped and you have to find it in a pawnshop.

This is a device that you can track in real time. Keep at it, I say.

Gonmun

zagdrob wrote: »

Fantasma wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

Being negligent does not abscond someone else of a crime.

Me leaving my door unlocked does not give someone permission to come in and steal my PS3.

This is not a case of someone leaving a door open, this is someone being negligent, careless, s... with a cell phone. Now, the OP can say anything he wants and accuse the other guy of theft, but the other guy can say anything he wants too: Phone, what phone? oh yes, the piece of crap i found in the trash in my university.

A person who finds a lost item needs to make reasonable efforts to find the rightful owner or turn it over to authorities. If they don't and just claim the item for themselves, it's absolutely theft.

It's not reasonable to expect that someone would simply discard a working iPad, so even if they found it in the trash there is an obligation to (attempt to) return it to the owners / turn it into police.

Not only that but the ipad was locked with a specific message for anyone who happened to turn it on stating to please contact the owner @ a specific number. It's not like the person who presently has it has no means of being able to know who's ipad it is. It's a built in feature of the device for this very scenario.

ceres

Geth, kick @Fantasma from the thread.

Geth

Affirmative ceres. @Fantasma banned from this thread.

ceres

Okay, I guess the robot is useful sometimes.

Romanian My Escutcheon

Deadfall wrote: »

If they can't do anything I'd be very surprised. This isn't your Gameboy getting swiped and you have to find it in a pawnshop.

This is a device that you can track in real time. Keep at it, I say.

The problem, apparently, is that the address it's shown up at is an apartment complex, and apparently without a specific apartment number, they can't get a search warrant.

And I don't know how I'm supposed to get the specific apartment number, short of waiting for this asshole to try and get back into the iPad.

mightyjongyo

Is there any sort of IP address from the network they tried to connect to? I'm guessing they won't/can't contact the ISP and get the physical location from the IP address? This would only work if the complex didn't provide internet to the whole complex I imagine.

Also obviously may not be allowed to do so by law etc etc.

I don't know much about GPS but I'm kinda surprised they can't pinpoint it to a specific apartment? Does GPS track altitude as well?

amateurhour

If your app gives you the IP it tried to connect to you can take that info to the police and have them contact the ISP to find out who that IP is leased to and they can go from there.

You're right in that no judge is going to give them a search warrant for an entire apartment complex for a $500 ipad. You still need to file a report with the police though and make sure they have your devices serial number as well as any other information that may help, because if you see it at a pawn shop or pop up from somewhere else in a few weeks if they sell it on craigslist then you and they will need that info to get it back.

Also it's not a bad idea to check the pawn shops in your area and keep an eye on your local craigslist or ebay to see if it possibly turns up there. That's all information you can give to the police as well.

Seriously anything you can do to make their job easier they're not going to turn down.

Djeet

The wifi iPad does not have GPS and the location is going to be determined from IP Geolocation or wifi triangulation via wifi location databases. It's probably not good enough to get a court order but there have definitely been cases I've seen on comsumerist where a lost/stolen iPad was recovered with police help, but not sure what information was provided or how ardently the wronged party pursued it. I think the 3G/4G iPads do have GPS.

Theft without violence it pretty low on the task list for cops. It will be on you to (1) file a report (this should generate an incident report number similar to a tech support ticket so when you call in again they have something to reference) and (2) follow up regularly, but not more than once a day.


Edit: theft with at least threat of violence becomes "aggravated" theft/robbery and thus becomes a more serious offense. Not trying to downplay your loss, more just providing info w/r/to legal system realities. Non aggravated offenses (misdemeanors) are just not ad much on the radar as felonies.

Darkewolfe

Romanian My Escutcheon wrote: »

Deadfall wrote: »

If they can't do anything I'd be very surprised. This isn't your Gameboy getting swiped and you have to find it in a pawnshop.

This is a device that you can track in real time. Keep at it, I say.

The problem, apparently, is that the address it's shown up at is an apartment complex, and apparently without a specific apartment number, they can't get a search warrant.

And I don't know how I'm supposed to get the specific apartment number, short of waiting for this asshole to try and get back into the iPad.

Depends on what they feel like doing. If you have a reasonable suspicion it's at a certain apartment, they could certainly knock on the door and ask, "Hey, did you find a lost iPad? We heard you might have."

The number of people who freak and admit to doing shit wrong just because a cop asks is surprisingly high.

Romanian My Escutcheon

Alright, the local cops advised me to go talk to the university police department, because they are an actual police department, and since the iPad was stolen on campus, it's in their jurisdiction.

I just got back from filing a report, now I guess it's just wait and see.

Thanks for the help guys, sorry if I came off as a brat at any point without realizing it, I'm just really upset that I was so stupid about my personal property.

ceres

I left my tablet in my physics classroom once.. it was a lecture hall. Only time I've ever done that. It happens. I was lucky though; someone brought it to the department office and I was able to claim it.

MichaelLC

I hope you get it back, but really don't count on it. Really depends on the police and since there was no damage/violence done, they may not care.

Hopefully you'll get yours back, but it may be covered under your parents' homeowners insurance.