It’s always good to hear of technology fighting back, and that’s exactly what happened this weekend when iPhone thieves got their comeuppance thanks to the Apple device. They were caught red-handed thanks to the Find My iPhone feature in MobileMe. Man, those iPhones can do everything, even catch criminals.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, a man was walking on the street at around 1 a.m. on Saturday morning when he was approached by two men. The man later told police that the two men demanded he hand over his wallet and tell them the PIN numbers for his credit cards. They also took his iPhone, although I’m guessing they wished they hadn’t now.

The man ran away from the scene and contacted police. Using the ‘Find My iPhone‘ feature in MobileMe, the man was able to locate his stolen iPhone using his computer and GPS. He tracked it to a local Wal-Mart where the suspects used his stolen credit card to purchase goods, and then to a fast food restaurant also in the area.

Police were able to use the ‘Find My iPhone’ feature to track down and arrest the suspects at a gas station. They were carrying a pellet gun, stolen identification, credit cards, cash, and of course the victim’s iPhone. The suspects are to be charged with access device fraud, conspiracy, receiving stolen property, and possessing instruments of crime.

The criminals could, of course, avoided capture by the simple act of switching the victim’s iPhone off. It would then not have been traceable via GPS. But I’m guessing your average criminal isn’t too intelligent so that may simply not have occurred to them to do so.

The ‘Find My iPhone’ feature in MobileMe isn’t designed for capturing criminals – rather just allowing you to find your lost iPhone – but it’s proved its worth in this case. Maybe Apple should bear this in mind for future iterations and make the iPhone traceable even when switched off. That would likely deter criminals from even stealing the devices in the first place.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 at 11:58 pm under Apple, Cell phones, Crime, Opinion, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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